There is no such thing as a free lunch. Since the electricity fee was waived, the popularity of Weilai Power Station has soared.

Since the introduction of the first car owner's free power exchange policy last year, Weilai's power exchange mode has always been the focus of attention.

On March 27th, Wei Lai organized a NIO? Power? At the online communication meeting in 2020, Shen Fei, vice president of Weilai Power Management, was invited to report NIO to everyone. Power's achievements so far, what plans are there next, and answered some questions about Weilai charging and replacing electricity.

NIO？ Power is the system established by Weilai on 20 17. Simply put, it is the combination of power exchange and power supply. Power exchange is a network of power exchange stations all over the country, and the power supply includes household exclusive piles, overcharged piles and one-button power supply services.

Different from Tesla's fast charging path, Weilai mainly changes batteries, supplemented by charging modes such as one-button charging and overcharge, aiming to bring users a "replaceable, rechargeable and upgradeable" intelligent energy supplement scheme.

Let's take a look at power-up. By March 2020, Weilai has landed 25 over-filled stations with over-filled piles 188.

The proportion of Weilai users installing household exclusive piles is relatively high in the industry. This year, 20Kw exclusive fast charging pile will be launched, which can meet the demand of 100kW battery introduced at the end of the year. At present, it takes 100kW battery 13+ hours to charge a 7kW pile, and only 5 hours for a 20kW pile.

Of course, not all families have the conditions to install 20kW fast-filling piles. If you live in a villa or a new building, you can install them. The experience must be very cool, and others just look at it.

At present, the service object of one-click power-on has been extended to more than 20 other brands of electric vehicles; 60% of the users of the "power-on" APP are also non-Weilai car owners.

This shows that the APP is really easy to use. It is said that because the power Commissioner will share the real experience of charging piles on the APP every time he conducts one-click power-on service, the credibility is relatively high.

But also opened up the payment channels of domestic mainstream toll operators. An APP is all done, without downloading a bunch of apps and binding various recharges, which is more worry-free, and it can be regarded as solving the pain points of a large number of users.

Let's take a look at the power exchange mode that Weilai is most proud of.

Electric communication was not invented by Weilai, but in this field which is still very small at present, Weilai is the most dynamic, and Beiqi New Energy is also pushing electric communication, but at this stage it is mainly aimed at the service field of taxis, which is not used by private users.

Weilai launched the power exchange plan very early, but the owner did not catch a cold. So last year, Weilai made a vicious move and directly announced that the first car owner would change electricity for free for life. The owners are tempted at once. Who doesn't want to have a free lunch?

According to official data, since the opening of free power exchange, car owners have scanned the code for 370,000 times, and the penetration rate of power exchange has reached 48. 1%, that is, nearly half of car owners have used it.

By March 2020, Weilai has landed 123 power stations, covering 5 1 city, with more than 16000 vehicles.

Weilai will build more than 50 power stations this year, all of which are version 2.0. There is no need to lift the vehicle when changing power, which is more efficient. When changing power, the owner can sit in the car. There is also a lounge in the power station to facilitate the owner to wait; The overall cost is also lower; The old version of the power station can be updated and continue to be used.

At present, Weilai's vehicles have two kinds of battery packs, 70kwh and 84kwh. At the end of the year, the battery pack of 100kwh will be launched, so there is a problem of cross-swapping when changing power. For example, a 70kwh car is replaced with a large battery of 84kwh. Will Weilai lock the power for users at this time?

Shen Fei said that it could be done technically, and that friend (talking about Tesla White) did it without adding money to lock the electricity for you, but Weilai wouldn't be such a chicken thief. He can give you a free big battery for a few days, but the system will monitor it and return it in a few days, otherwise there will be a charge.

This is similar to the battery life upgrade plan launched by Weilai last year. If you can only replace the battery with larger capacity, you can use it for 7 days free of charge every month, and pay according to the flexible upgrade plan for more than 7 days.

I understand what Wei Lai means is that we will not be so unkind. We can give you a chance to experience the big battery for free, but we should be temperate and won't let you stay in bonus hunter.

Speaking of battery life upgrade, by the way, the data given by Weilai shows that there are only more than 100 users who choose to upgrade 70kW batteries to 84kW, which is not high. It seems that there is a free power exchange, and everyone's interest in directly upgrading the battery is not so high.

As for the efficiency of battery replacement, Shen Fei said that the actual battery replacement time only takes four or five minutes, and the whole time should not exceed ten minutes, otherwise there will be problems.

However, in the actual use process, can you really change a power station in ten minutes? Last month, we specially visited several power stations in Shanghai to see how Weilai's power station operated during the epidemic. As a result, people generally have to wait, and some cars have just left because of the long queue.

The car with the longest waiting time took 40 minutes from entering the station to leaving the station. Because the car could not be lifted during the process, it was successfully replaced after repeated attempts. Finally, the staff explained that the door was not closed properly. ...

If it's not free, I don't know how long you have to wait in line to change a battery.

Of course, with the increase of power stations, this situation should gradually improve. However, there are still some questions to be solved in our hearts, such as where is the profit point of free power exchange? Although the electricity fee for a battery is not high, it is only 50 yuan, but it costs money to change the power station construction and the staff has to pay. These costs are not small.

There is also Wei Lai who thinks that changing electricity can solve the problem of high depreciation caused by battery attenuation of second-hand electric vehicles. However, free power exchange is only for the first owner, and used car owners can't enjoy such a big free cake. Will it also affect the purchase of used cars? Will other battery policies be introduced for used car owners?

There may not be a better answer to these questions at present. At present, the most important thing is to attract more consumers to choose Weilai by freely changing electricity, so as to increase the quantity first. Tesla also launched a tempting lunch with free overcharge at the beginning, and changed the charge as soon as the sales volume came up.

In fact, for users, only bonus hunter is definitely a minority. Everyone wants a brand to become better and earn more money, so it is most important to see a feasible business model.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.