On the Weilai Power Day on July 6, whether it is Weilai co-founder and president Qin Lihong, or Weilai Energy’s senior vice president Shen Fei, they have been emphasizing one point – it is more convenient to power up than to refuel.
By the end of 2021, there are 119,000 gas stations in my country. The latest data from the Ministry of Public Security shows that as of the first half of 2022, the number of motor vehicles in my country is 406 million, of which the number of new energy vehicles has exceeded 10 million, and the ratio of gas stations to vehicle ownership is about 3:10,000.
Official data shows that by the end of June 2022, NIO had delivered a total of 217,897 vehicles and built 1,011 swap stations, with a ratio of swap stations to vehicle ownership of about 4.6:1,000. Of the 1,011 charging stations, about 25% are highway swap stations.
Weilai also announced for the first time that there are 8,961 batteries in circulation in these 1,011 swap stations, of which the proportion of batteries that support long battery life has reached 42.6%.
At the same time, Weilai also has 1,681 charging stations, 9,603 charging piles, and more than 520,000 third-party charging piles. In addition, official data also shows that as of July 6, 2022, Weilai has installed 127,500 home charging piles for users.
A set of data provided by NIO on the same day more comprehensively shows the power-up habits of NIO owners. Of the total power-up, 52.3% came from battery swaps, 24.2% came from home charging piles, 11.4% came from drop-in power, and 0.9% came from NIO’s “one-click power-up” service.
This means that about 88.8% of the power-up of NIO owners comes from NIO’s power-up service system, and 11.2% comes from public charging piles. NIO’s owners have already highly relied on NIO’s power-up service system. Weilai car owners enjoy the right to free battery replacement. Shen Fei also revealed, “Our battery replacement time is about 11 minutes on average. The home charging pile only needs to plug in and unplug the charging gun, and the perception of time is very weak.” Therefore, from this point of view Said that Qin Lihong and Shen Fei’s point of view that “powering up is more convenient than refueling” can be established.
Qin Lihong also said that if there are still people who think that it is inconvenient to recharge electric vehicles, it is out of date. Swapping stations have become the foundation for NIO to ensure the quality of power-on services, and home charging piles are another important support. For the “one-click power-on” service, charging stations and third-party charging piles are perfect supplements, adapting to different scenarios of car owners. electricity demand.
On the day of Power Day, NIO’s 1,000th battery swap station landed in Lhasa, Tibet. According to Qin Lihong, if you drive a Weilai car from Shanghai to Lhasa, the cost will be only about one-fifth of the cost of a fuel car at a market-based fee. “But Weilai users don’t need money to change electricity, at least one month. You can change the battery 6 times for free,” he said.
Diversified power-up methods and lower costs may be the magic weapon for NIO in power-up services. Under the current inventory and growth rate, according to Weilai’s station construction speed – by the end of 2025, 3,000 battery swap stations will be built in China. In the next two and a half years, Weilai will add nearly 2,000 new battery swap stations in China to ensure the battery swap service experience for car owners.
Some of these new swap stations are covering the highway network. NIO put forward a plan on Power Day: to build a high-speed power exchange network covering nine vertical, nine horizontal, and nineteen major urban agglomerations in 2025. There are 18 expressways in the “nine verticals and nine horizontals”, and the nineteen major urban agglomerations cover major cities and their surrounding areas.
In addition, most of the new power exchange stations are to solve the coverage and efficiency problems of vehicle owners in the city. Based on the energy cloud, NIO will combine the needs of new users in the city to select the location of the power exchange station. “We have about 300 car owners in Shanghai, and they have never used charging piles at all, because it is very convenient to change the battery, and it can be done in 3-5 minutes. Let’s say that at a certain time, users in 5-6 towns bought our car, that is, there is a blank spot, and we have to step up the layout.” Qin Lihong said in an interview.
At the same time, the number of NIO’s home charging piles, charging stations and charging piles will also continue to grow. There is no specific data plan, but it can be seen from the growth of NIO’s destination and circuit lines – 2025 In 2018, NIO will build a total of 168 destination plus circuit lines, which can cover popular scenic spots such as Shennongjia, Xishuangbanna, Xiaoxing’anling Forest Sea and the Silk Road.
Power-up product upgrades are also underway. At the end of Power Day, NIO presented in the form of Easter eggs: a 500kW ultra-fast charging pile, a third-generation power exchange station, an 800V high-voltage platform battery pack, and a matching power exchange system.
In an interview, Qin Lihong mentioned the efficiency improvement of the power station upgrade. “I don’t deny that there are car owners who have been in line for an hour, and that happened at the first-generation power exchange station. Now the second-generation station can basically avoid queuing, and change a car’s battery in 6-8 minutes. And when the last When a battery is swapped out, the first battery swapped in is full. So the third-generation swap station will be more efficient.”
But NIO has not released more details about these power-up products, but these products will gradually meet NIO owners soon.