On March 24, the charging and replacement power station of Weilai station, located on the left side of RT Mart parking lot in Xingtang, Suzhou, Jiangsu, went online. This is the 866th replacement power station of Weilai automobile. With the state clearly encouraging the promotion and application of the power exchange mode, the Ministry of industry and Information Technology launched the pilot application of the power exchange mode of new energy vehicles in 11 cities, and the entry of industry giants such as Ningde times and Geely, the once undervalued power exchange mode has returned to people's vision. Organic said that this year will be the first year of rapid development of China's power exchange industry. Re recognize the advantages of power exchange The whole process of "warehousing, power change and delivery" is automated. In less than 5 minutes, a new energy vehicle can run on full power again, which is a habitual scene for many Weilai car owners. "Compared with charging, the advantage of power change is that it can realize rapid energy supplement, battery upgrading, battery health detection, rapid recovery of battery packs, and flexible power change for users on demand." Talking about the advantages of power replacement, Shen Fei, senior vice president of Weilai energy, explained that this is not only the only power on means comparable to the refueling speed of oil vehicles, but also the cost of battery upgrading based on power replacement network is far lower than that based on conventional vehicle maintenance system. At the same time, users can also select the appropriate battery according to their needs in different stages and different vehicle scenarios. "This not only improves the user experience, but also improves the battery efficiency. There is no need to carry a large battery that costs a lot of money all the time." Shen Fei calculated an account for the reporter. In the initial purchase cost of electric vehicles, the power battery accounts for about 40%. The charging mode of "vehicle electricity integration" greatly increases the cost of the whole vehicle, while under the vehicle electricity separation mode, the purchase price of electric vehicles can be reduced by up to half. Especially in the field of heavy trucks, taxis and online car hailing, the operation efficiency can be improved and the economic benefit is more obvious. In addition, battery materials can also be incorporated into the circular economy to further improve environmental protection efficiency. In fact, as early as 2011, the State Grid determined the basic commercial operation mode of electric vehicles as follows: mainly changing electricity, supplemented by plug-in charging, centralized charging and unified distribution. For example, building a charging and changing power station near the substation can avoid impacting the distribution network; The central area of the city can rely on the substation in the suburbs to build a centralized battery charging station. Unfortunately, the original idea of "cutting peaks and filling valleys" failed to meet the response of the industry. The layout of Weilai power station was once regarded as a business of throwing money and losing money. On October 20, 2020, the general office of the State Council issued the development plan for new energy vehicle industry (2021-2035), which clearly encourages the promotion and application of power exchange mode; After the Ministry of industry and Information Technology launched the pilot application of new energy vehicle power exchange mode, everything began to change. On January 18 this year, Ningde times officially entered the electric vehicle power exchange track and launched the combined power exchange overall solution of power exchange service brand evogo and "chocolate power exchange block". Six days later, Geely and Lifan announced the establishment of Chongqing Ruilan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. and also entered the power exchange market. "The addition of the giant Ningde era not only did not occupy the space of the power exchange market, but widened the track and gave the power exchange enterprises more room for development." The relevant person in charge of Aodong new energy said, "after Ningde era entered the power exchange track, our business is progressing more smoothly. Many partners such as FAW and GAC took the initiative to explore the development of power exchange mode." CITIC Securities believes that 2022 is expected to be the first year of rapid development of the power exchange industry, with more than 3000 new power exchange stations in the whole year and more than 10000 in 2025. CICC estimates in relevant research reports that the number of replacement power stations will be about 12500 to 51900 by 2025. In the long run, 550000 passenger car replacement power stations and 60000 heavy truck replacement power stations are needed across the country, with a total of 1.8 trillion yuan of corresponding replacement power station equipment and grid side equipment. Three difficulties need to be solved urgently The ownership and use of new energy vehicles are growing rapidly, and the demand for charging and power exchange services is also increasing. However, it is undeniable that some supporting policies and measures need to be broken through in the whole life cycle and ecological construction of vehicle electricity separation. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Group, said that first of all, in the relevant links of construction and management of replacement power station, as a heavy asset investment, the land is mostly leased, there are few land options, and there are many restrictions on land approval. At the same time, limited by the universality of cross brand, multi vehicle model, power exchange platform and device technology, power exchange battery pack communication protocol, electrical connector technology, etc., a power exchange station can only serve a single vehicle brand or even a single vehicle model, resulting in the contradiction between the increasing demand for station construction and limited land and power resources. Secondly, in terms of national standards, in addition to the three mandatory national standards of safety requirements for electric vehicles, safety requirements for electric buses and safety requirements for power batteries for electric vehicles issued by the National Standards Commission and the Ministry of industry and information technology in May 2020, most of the other standards are recommended standards and industry standards issued in previous years. Today, with the rapid development of new technologies and new situations, they need to be revised and improved. Taking the current automobile announcement mode as an example, the announcement is based on the whole vehicle (including battery). However, in the vehicle electricity separation mode, a replacement tram type will match multiple batteries, and a battery will also match multiple models. If the three cars can correspond to three batteries, the three cars need to be announced nine times. If new batteries are developed, they need to be announced again. If you are going to develop a new model, you need to announce all the matching batteries last time. In addition, the R & D direction and progress of each battery manufacturer are different, and the energy density, battery structure, size and specification of power battery products cannot be unified, resulting in the difficulty of power exchange mode to form scale effect. The low degree of standardization of replacement batteries also restricts multiple brand models from sharing the same replacement power station, delaying the development process of the replacement power station. The adaptation of power exchange mode needs to be promoted by car enterprises and battery enterprises. If there is no standard promotion, all car enterprises and brands will still use different power exchange interfaces and cannot complete the adaptation. Improve resource utilization frequency Any kind of business model can only be sustained if it makes profits. Compared with charging, due to the larger initial investment, the most perplexing charging enterprises is undoubtedly how to make profits. In this regard, Chen Weifeng, general manager of Ningde times electric service, said: "from the perspective of the business plan of Ningde times, if there are more cars to replace power stations and batteries, there will be opportunities to make profits. We are more confident that there will be more models to replace batteries under standardization." Shen Fei told reporters that the capacitance demand of Weilai second generation power station is similar to that of about 10 overcharged piles, but it only accounts for 4 parking spaces, while 10 overcharged piles need 10 parking spaces. Under the same floor area, the service capacity of the second generation power station is about twice that of the overcharge station. In addition to rapid energy replenishment, the power exchange station can also realize battery upgrading, battery health detection, rapid recovery of battery packs, and flexible power exchange for users on demand. On the whole, as long as there is a certain demand for electricity exchange, the cost of electricity per kilowatt hour is basically the same. If we consider battery upgrading, battery testing, rapid recycling, etc., the economy of the power station will be better. "Accelerating the standardization and generalization of power exchange mode is the prerequisite for profitability." Li Shufu believes that at present, we should promote the standardization of software and hardware protocols of power exchange interface and the standardization of power exchange battery packs, so that power exchange battery packs can really be exchanged among different vehicle enterprises, power exchange stations and users, so as to improve resource utilization efficiency. Xu Yanhua, Secretary General of China electric vehicle charging infrastructure promotion alliance, believes that promoting the standardization of battery packs from changing tram models can not only avoid the embarrassment of incompatible power stations and consumers unable to use the stations, but also help enterprises improve the power change frequency, form scale effect and run through the business model. (Xinhua News Agency)