Looking for Li Bin for battery replacement, who should I look for for supercharging?

"Replace the battery to find the bin and find the super charge to find Aion", this is a joke made by Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aion, when GAC Aion launched the second-generation AION V (also known as "Aion Tyrannosaurus Rex").

The sound outside the strings is nothing more than two meanings: one is that NIO has been deeply involved in battery swapping for many years and has been recognized by friends, and the other is that Aion is making efforts to overcharge, and the goal is to become a representative car company.

Image source: GAC Group

Aion is currently promoting the "10,000 piles plan", planning to build 10,000 overcharging terminals on 1000V high-voltage platforms within the year. However, on the road to becoming the "king of supercharging", Aion has no shortage of peers and competitors.

Ideal, Xpeng, and even new car-making forces including NIO, new energy brands laid out by traditional car companies such as Aion, Zeekr, Zhiji, and VOYAH, as well as traditional car companies such as Volkswagen and FAW, all regard supercharging as a trump card in building an energy supplement system.

The reason for this is that supercharging carries the important task of alleviating consumers' anxiety about energy replenishment, enhancing the brand power of car companies, and boosting the sales of high-end models.

Do a good job of "consolidating the foundation"

Nowadays, "volume" has become the norm in the mainland's new energy vehicle industry. New EV manufacturers must make every effort to open up new battlefields, traditional car companies must transform, and joint venture car companies must maintain their competitive advantages...... There is no most volume, only more volume.

In particular, by 2024, with the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reaching 35.2% (the first half of the year), the market-oriented competition in the auto market has entered a white-hot situation, and the construction of an energy supplement system has become a "solid move" for car companies.

Taking NIO as an example, the reason why it is popular with consumers is that battery swapping is a big plus. In the eyes of the outside world, NIO is basically the only pure electric brand without range anxiety, relying on its charging and swapping system and service guarantee system, so that many high-end fuel vehicle users do not have to worry about energy replenishment when choosing NIO.

Up to now, NIO has deployed more than 2,400 battery swap stations across the country. However, the investment behind it is also extremely huge: according to the rough calculation of the cost of 3 million yuan per battery swap station, the investment in the battery swap station has exceeded 7 billion yuan, not including the later operating costs.

In order to make C-end consumers willing to pay for pure electric products, in addition to battery swapping, supercharging has also become a key strategy for many car companies to lay out energy replenishment systems.

After the release of the first pure electric MPV model MEGA and the shock, in just two months, it launched a major organizational adjustment, laid off employees, and announced that "no new pure electric models will be released this year", hoping to lay a good foundation this year, and one of the foundations is supercharging.

Li Xiang said that self-operated supercharging piles are a necessary condition for the sale of mid-to-high-end pure electric SUVs, and it is roughly necessary to achieve the number level of Tesla China - more than 1,900 supercharging stations.

Xpeng Motors, which laid out supercharging stations in the early days, has tasted dividends. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, once said at the financial report that in the charging network, Xiaopeng's self-operated supercharging stations with wider coverage and better experience have become one of the company's important competitive advantages.

At present, in terms of the construction of the energy supplement system, it is by no means easy to rebuild a battery swap network such as NIO, whether it is the input cost or the construction cycle, but the supercharging can help car companies open up the market faster and better in a relatively short period of time. Nowadays, all car companies are sparing no effort to promote the construction of supercharging in the construction of energy replenishment systems.

Xpeng Motors has set a goal of achieving 3,000 ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2025, and according to the latest data, 20 of Xpeng's 1,000th self-operated supercharging stations have landed in Wuhan Zhongjin Times Square on July 6; Li Auto plans to build more than 2,000 ideal supercharging stations and more than 10,000 ideal charging piles by the end of the year, and announced the launch of the 700th ideal supercharging station on July 28.

In addition, ZEEKR is also accelerating the "Thousands of Stations, Thousands of Piles" plan, that is, 1,000+ supercharging stations will be built in 2024, and the number of supercharging piles will reach 10,000+ in 2026. Xiaomi Auto is also preparing to build super charging stations, and the first batch of planned cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou will be gradually built.

Traditional car companies are cooperating with charging operators to rapidly promote the construction of energy replenishment systems. CAMS New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (CAMS), a joint venture established in 2019 by Volkswagen Group, China FAW, Star Charging, and JAC, is one of its core businesses to deploy fast charging networks. According to the latest data, as of July 5, the self-operated charging network has covered 206 cities, with 1,592 charging stations and 12,879 charging terminals.

Selling cars "self-reliant"

Some industry insiders told Gasgoo that at present, based on technological breakthroughs in the fields of silicon carbide and batteries, electric vehicle charging technology has ushered in a new stage of development, and 2024 is regarded by the industry as a key year for the large-scale expansion of supercharging technology, and the price of models equipped with 800V high-voltage fast charging is gradually declining.

At present, BYD, ZEEKR, GAC Aion and other brands have launched models equipped with 800V high-voltage platforms. The new ZEEKR 001 launched in February this year has an official guide price of between 269,000 and 329,000 yuan, and the whole system is equipped with an 800V high-voltage system; GAC Group's Haobo Hyper GT will launch a "global" model, which also supports 800V high-voltage overcharging; Xiaomi Auto SU7 is a full range of "global silicon carbide", and the Max version is equipped with an 871V high-voltage platform. The Leapmotor C16, which was launched on June 28, adopts a global 800V high-voltage silicon carbide fast charging platform for pure electric models, with a guide price of 155,800-185,800 yuan.

The above-mentioned industry insiders emphasized that the 800V high-voltage fast charging models that have appeared in the terminal market have benefited from the impetus of new technologies on the one hand, and more importantly, the fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market.

In any case, for consumers, the construction of supercharging stations by car companies can alleviate problems such as difficult charging and long charging time; For brand owners, the model brand has an exclusive supercharging pile, which can generate a sense of brand belonging on the basis of alleviating the anxiety of energy replenishment.

In the era of new energy vehicles, the link between car companies and consumers is changing. In the past, car companies only needed to sell their cars, but now, car companies also need to do a good job in the energy replenishment link. With the outbreak of the private consumer market for new energy vehicles, car companies have to pave the way in infrastructure construction before launching 800V high-voltage fast charging models.

In a hotel in Futian District, Shenzhen, one side of the store is the battery swap station of NIO, and the Lotus supercharging station and the Zeekr supercharging station are built side by side, which is a microcosm of the car companies competing to build and layout supercharging piles.

Nowadays, car companies not only take the initiative to build supercharging stations, but even many car companies have developed their own supercharging piles, and the charging power and energy replenishment time are constantly iterating.

For example, in April this year, VOYAH launched the world's first megawatt-level brand charging pile, which supports up to 8C fast charging, with a peak power of up to 1000kW and a peak current of up to 1000A. GAC Energy's self-developed H640 fully liquid-cooled super charging pile has a single pile output power of 640kW and a current of 800A, supporting the fastest 6C charging; ZEEKR Extreme Charge V3 landed in April this year, with a peak power of 800kW for a single gun, a maximum output voltage of 1000V, and a maximum output current of 800A; Xpeng's 800kW S5 liquid-cooled ultra-fast charging station will be launched soon, providing up to 960kW host power configuration.

Aiming for the "Sea of Stars"

Gasgoo understands that the construction of supercharging stations is closely related to factors such as power capacity, construction scale, and station location, and requires one-time investment in equipment, power capacity, site rent, and project construction. For charging and swapping operators, if they invest in the construction of supercharging stations alone, it is difficult to proportionate the investment and income due to the high investment cost and long payback period in the absence of a large number of relevant models.

Therefore, in order to better launch high-voltage overcharging models into the market, car companies must invest heavily in the layout of supercharging stations. It is reported that the cost of building an overcharging pile is about 300,000 yuan, and the cost of a supercharging station equipped with 10 piles is about 3 million yuan. Ideal plans to invest at least 6 billion yuan in all self-operated high-speed 5C supercharging stations. Musk also previously mentioned that Tesla will spend more than $500 million this year to expand its Supercharger network to build thousands of new charging stations, which does not include operating costs, which are much higher.

As a key part of the new infrastructure of new energy vehicles, supercharging stations need to take a long-term view of their role. Not long ago, on July 31, the first large-scale supercharging station of GAC Energy and Hongfei Energy strategic cooperation was officially opened. While providing car owners with a supercharging experience, the supercharging station is also equipped with service facilities such as car washes, lounges, and convenience stores, providing users with a high-quality charging experience of "people· cars· energy, · life". In terms of exploring the business model of supercharging station operation, the model adopted by GAC Energy is very typical, and may become a commercial model in the future.

In addition, through conversations with a number of people in the charging pile industry, it was found that the industry is currently calm about the boom in the construction of supercharging stations.

It is reported that the increase in the power of the supercharging unit and the rapid increase in the number is equivalent to the increase of large-scale, high-power electrical equipment on the user side, if the simultaneous charging occurs, it will bring great challenges to the overall power grid and distribution network. Therefore, the premise of the outbreak of the supercharging industry chain is that it cannot be left without the coordinated efforts of multiple entities, including car companies, operators, equipment manufacturers, power grids, and governments.

At present, the calls and actions of car companies for interconnection and resource sharing are gradually expanding. Previously, when VOYAH promised that the supercharging pile would be open to all new energy vehicles, it also called on the industry to carry out "agreement unification and resource sharing". The Xpeng S5 liquid-cooled ultra-fast charging station will also support the interconnection of multiple charging platforms; Huawei Digital Power has established a supercharging alliance with a number of car companies, industry associations, and charging operators. CATL also officially launched the construction of the Shenxing supercharging network, building the largest supercharging service platform in China.

According to Huawei's High-Voltage Fast Charging Industry Development Report 2023-2025, by the end of 2026, the number of high-voltage fast-charging models in the market will exceed 13 million. Prior to this, all parties were steadily and orderly promoting the construction of supercharging networks, and it remains to be seen who will be in charge of the future in the future.