Supercharging, the next breakthrough for new energy vehicles?

Supercharging, the next breakthrough for new energy vehicles?

If the charging efficiency of charging piles can reach the same level as refueling at a gas station, the popularity of new energy vehicles will be greatly accelerated. This is a common understanding among many new energy vehicle practitioners. For a long time, battery life anxiety, charging anxiety, and safety anxiety have become the "three big mountains" of new energy vehicles. Now, super fast charging technology and super fast charging stations are trying to solve the problem from the pain point of charging anxiety.

Many car companies are deploying high-power charging stations (commonly known as overcharging). Such as NIO, Xpeng Motors, and GAC Aion. In the past two years, one after another new energy vehicle products with ultra-large charging power have been launched: "Huawei's super 600kW charging pile appears, charging 100 kilowatt hours of electricity in 10 minutes" and "Kuaibu New Energy released the industry's first fully liquid-cooled energy storage The overcharging system can achieve a maximum overcharging capacity of 600KW”...

The current growth rate of domestic new energy vehicles is slowing down. In the first quarter of 2023 after the complete withdrawal of state subsidies, the sales growth rate of new energy vehicles will be It will drop from about 90% in 2022 to about 30%. The new energy vehicle market is facing pressure to expand its popularity. And can overcharging become the next breakthrough for new energy vehicles?

In the view of Tong Zongqi, deputy secretary-general of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the "China Charging Alliance"), how to solve the convenience, safety and operability of charging has already affected the It is a key link in the next rapid development of new energy vehicles.

But in reality, the application scenarios suitable for overcharging are relatively limited, and there are also few models that can carry out high-power charging. This situation makes it difficult for overcharging to become a mainstream energy replenishment method.

Overcharging has become a popular product

In view of the three major pain points of new energy vehicles: battery life anxiety, charging anxiety, and safety anxiety, in recent years, with the advancement of technology, some solutions have been achieved. solve. Regarding the anxiety about battery life, many car companies have launched technology competitions in the past two years. 600 kilometers of battery life has become the mainstream of the market, and models with 800 kilometers or even 1,000 kilometers have also been launched. As the cruising range of new energy vehicles increases, consumers' acceptance of electric vehicles also increases. Now, the charging problem has become a new and more important pain point.

Tong Zongqi believes that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the development of China's new energy vehicles relies on its own product capabilities, such as being more economical than fuel vehicles, with better controllability, and some related to intelligent network connectivity. Functional packages, etc. "At that time, (cars sold) were mostly used as operating vehicles, and the proportion of new energy vehicles used by ordinary people was very small. In 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 3.5 million, and last year it was 6.8 million. This year we It is estimated that there are 9 to 10 million vehicles, and more than 70% of them are private cars. When ordinary people use cars, the most critical issue is definitely the charging problem. "

The China Electric Vehicle Conference was held in early April. At the 100-person Forum (2023) (referred to as the 100-person Forum), Li Bin, chairman of NIO, announced that the installation of 500kW ultra-fast charging piles has begun; the Xpeng G9, which will be launched in September 2022 (picture | configuration | inquiry), is the domestic The first mass-produced vehicle based on the 800V high-voltage SiC platform.

In addition to domestic new energy vehicle companies developing fast charging technology, international automotive giants such as Porsche, Tesla, BMW, etc. are also doing the same. Tesla announced that as of early March this year, it had deployed more than 1,500 high-power charging stations and more than 10,000 high-power charging piles in mainland China, as well as more than 700 destination charging stations and more than 1,900 destination charging piles. And a "15-minute charging" living circle has been formed in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places.

At the Forum of 100 People, Huang Xiangdong, chairman and CTO of Juwan Technology Research, a subsidiary of GAC Group, said: "Extremely fast charging is an enabler and accelerator for the popularization of electric vehicles. According to a McKinsey research report, charging is fast Convenience has replaced car purchase costs, range anxiety, etc., and has become the number one issue hindering the widespread popularization of electric vehicles."

"From the perspective of the cost of use in the whole society, the construction of fast charging technology and fast charging networks is the most important issue. Solve the last bottleneck in the development of electric vehicles," said Liu Jincheng, chairman of Huizhou Yiwei Lithium Energy Co., Ltd.

Liu Bin, chief expert of China Automotive Technology Research Center Co., Ltd., believes that by around 2025, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will depend on infrastructure.

In fact, many domestic cities have introduced policies to speed up the construction of charging pile infrastructure, and many of them have clearly proposed to create "supercharging cities." In cooperation with GAC Eon, China Southern Power Grid, Huawei and other companies, Guangzhou officially launched the construction of the world's first "Supercharging City" in April 2022, and plans to deploy 1,000 supercharging stations in Guangzhou by 2025. center.

Cities such as Chongqing, Shanghai, and Yueqing in Zhejiang have also successively introduced relevant measures to speed up the construction of charging and swapping infrastructure. For example, on March 13 this year, the Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau issued the "Notice on Chongqing's Fiscal Subsidy Policy for Charging and Swapping Infrastructure in 2023 (Draft for Comments)", proposing to provide expressway services in areas outside the central urban area and the city. Different levels of one-time subsidies will be given to newly built and put into operation DC charging piles in the district and city.

Applicable scenarios are difficult to become mainstream

Some participants in the industry and consumers have a simple appeal for overcharging, that is, the more overcharging piles, the better, and the greater the power, the better. This is indeed true in terms of the convenience experience of replenishing energy.

But in most real scenarios, high-power charging is not the most suitable choice. Whether considering the demand side or the supply side, there are many obstacles to achieving the popularization of high-power charging (defined by the China Charging Alliance as charging power above 250kW).

For new energy car owners, the need for high-power charging only exists during long-distance travel or in emergencies, and its economic cost is much higher than that of ordinary charging piles. A new energy car owner told reporters: "If you can install a charging pile at home, one charge will cost 40 to 50 cents. A high-power charging pile may cost 1, 56 or even 2 yuan per charge. Then I will definitely charge at home." ”

Tong Zongqi said: “From the perspective of the structure of all new energy vehicle models, high-power charging will not become mainstream because the number of models with 800V high-voltage fast charging platforms is very low now, and they are basically all models. Many models with prices above RMB 250,000 cannot be reduced now, so we see more that some high-value models will slowly transition to high-voltage fast charging in the future. So from the perspective of the entire structure, the 800V high-voltage fast charging platform. Car models will not become mainstream, and there will not be many high-power charging piles.”

On the supply side, high-power charging also faces many difficulties. First, due to the higher construction costs, the business model of high-power charging piles has not yet taken off. "Currently, we cannot see a sustainable development model. (In order to seize the market), now everyone is engaged in a price war with high-power DC piles, lowering the price in terms of service fees." Tong Zongqi mentioned.

In addition, due to the larger charging power, the high-power charging pile itself will have higher load requirements on the power grid. This is a difficult problem to solve for the construction of high-power charging stations. It requires the construction and operators of charging stations to fully consider the load capacity of the local power grid. At the same time, they need to fully negotiate with the local power grid company to reach cooperation, and the expansion of the power grid is more important. It's a big project.

It is understood that the high-power charging stations currently constructed in various places basically have one or two high-power charging piles, plus some 120kW or other low-power DC piles.

Currently, there are only two application scenarios suitable for high-power charging. One is a highway scene and the other is a public charging station. The most common feature of these two scenarios is that the car owner comes here just to replenish energy, so the shorter the charging time, the better. In other more common scenarios with more frequent charging, such as residences, offices, and destinations (supermarkets, hotels, entertainment venues, and other places where people stay for a long time), car owners do not have urgent demand for high-power charging.

At this stage, the national charging infrastructure construction route is mainly based on slow charging, supplemented by fast charging (including high-power charging), and supplemented by various charging technologies such as battery swapping and wireless charging robots. It is most prudent to consider the overall situation.