The troubles of electric car owners

Zhang Xia, who works at Jiading Motor City in Shanghai, bought a Zhongke Lifan pure electric vehicle in early April this year. He wanted to taste something fresh and the results met with no small flaws.

Zhang Xia found that her electric car could not be charged at home. Her car can only be returned to the factory by staff of Zhongli Lifan for charging, and then returned.

Originally, Zhang Xi purchased Zhongke Lifan pure electric vehicle using a DC charging mode, but around Jiading Automobile City, the charging piles built by the State Grid are all AC charging modes.

“Before the purchase, the manufacturer promised to install a DC charging pile in the home area, but it has not been installed yet. The car needs to be charged with 20 amps of DC power, and the existing 12 amps of AC power in the house cannot be recharged.” Zhang Xia told << First Financial Daily reporter. However, Zhongke Lifan said that this is because the State Grid did not fulfill its commitment to build DC charging piles.

As China has officially launched demonstrations and subsidies for energy-saving and new energy vehicles since 2009, the promotion of electric vehicle charging stations has also been driven by policies that have blossomed throughout the country.

However, the key technology in the charging station, the battery design and use standards, has not changed substantially. This will inevitably hinder the development of electric vehicles in China. In the premise that the car environment is not mature, to encourage individuals to buy electric cars, is it responsible? If you want to make an electric car similar to a traditional car, you may have to wait for a long time to enter the homes of ordinary people.

New Deal Drives Charging Station

China Merchants Securities researcher Wang Liusheng told the reporter of the “First Financial Daily” that it was a symbol of the charging station’s policy. It should be the “Notice on Launching Pilot Projects for Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles Demonstration and Promotion” years ago (Caijian[ [2009] No. 6) and "Notice on Expanding the Work Related to the Demonstration and Promotion of Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles in the Field of Public Services" (Caijian [2010] No. 227).

“The two notifications mentioned that public transport, rental, business, sanitation, and postal services in 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Changchun, Dalian, Hangzhou, Jinan, Wuhan, and Shenzhen can be used first. New energy vehicle."

Wang Liusheng pointed out that if it is a hybrid vehicle, it can get a subsidy of 50,000 yuan per vehicle, while pure electric vehicles can subsidize 60,000 yuan per vehicle. For urban buses, the maximum subsidy for hybrid vehicles is 420,000 yuan/vehicle, and pure electric vehicles can be subsidized by 500,000 yuan/vehicle.

Due to the policy first, the market is very optimistic about the prospects of charging stations. Sinopec, PetroChina, China National Grid and China Southern Power Grid, as well as other manufacturers of battery and charging equipment, have all invested or are seeking partners to enter this field. According to a civilian survey, there are currently more than 40 cities in China that are building electric vehicle charging stations and charging piles, and a total of 76 charging stations have been built. It is estimated that the State Grid will invest 32.3 billion yuan in charging stations in 2020.

"Change mode" is mixed

Compared to charging stations that have already taken root everywhere, the “battery”, the core component of domestic electric vehicles, is still in its infancy. If you do not solve a series of battery-related problems, the charging station is likely to be just a decoration.

At present, there are two kinds of charging modes in China that are being explored. One is the “battery change” mode that the national grid tends to support. The other is that it does not have to take out the car’s battery, but instead directly supplies the electric vehicle with a charging mode.

Although there are many regions in the country that will call their own gas stations "electric stations" "charging stations," they also provide battery replacement services.

Qian Liangguo, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Power Supply Association, told the newspaper that if the “batteries are replaced”, then the cost of the entire vehicle will drop in a straight line, because the price of a battery is tens of thousands of yuan or even higher. Second, replacing batteries is more economical. Even if there is no financial subsidy, it will make the industry easier to promote.

Chen Yudong, president of Bosch China, also stated that when the electric vehicle market is still in its infancy, it should not disperse investment excessively. It is not necessary for every OEM to produce motors and batteries. This will not achieve scale effect. If ten host plants do a piece, their market demand is tens of thousands of units, then the scale effect is bigger than a single enterprise.

However, Wang Liusheng also believes that there are still a series of technical obstacles in replacing the battery model. “The first issue is the unification of standards.” He said that companies that produce electric vehicles include not only domestic companies such as BYD and Zhongtai, but also car companies such as Ford, Volkswagen, and Japan. They have battery types, battery modules, and charging equipment for electric vehicles. There are different configurations of interfaces, internal communication protocols, etc. If you use the battery-changing mode, how can these be unified?

Lin Cheng, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, once told reporters that BYD's F3e, Lotus, and Jingyue each use lithium iron phosphate and lithium polymer batteries, while Dongfeng Motor's one model uses nickel-metal hydride batteries, in addition to companies that use them. Lithium manganate and lead-acid batteries.

Wang Liusheng pointed out that it is not always possible to place a large number of battery types in a battery-changing place. “In addition, some battery replacement steps may not be available to the driver. This requires the training and professional presence of the (charged) power station. Assist in battery replacement."

"Charging" mode is not yet complete

So is the "charging" method feasible? State Grid Shandong Electric Power Co., Ltd. implements a basic operating model of “mainly changing power supply, supplementing charging, centralizing charging, and unified distribution.” Wang Liusheng believes that this method should be able to explain that the State Grid has not given up “charging” or “recharging”. Plug in the path.

The convenience of charging is that its requirements for the "charging station" may not be as cumbersome as "changing the battery". People can choose to charge quickly or slowly near the neighborhood or in a public parking lot. If they are charged at night, their charging costs are much lower than during the day.

On the other hand, although "replacement of batteries" can reduce the cost of the entire vehicle, users still have to pay for expensive batteries in the process of "recharging." Although some people in the industry are advocating the "lease battery" method, it is unclear how the rental cost will be set and whether it is high.

Conversely, if it is assumed to be charged, the user may only need to pay electricity to the grid or charging service provider.

However, doubts about the "charging" model have always existed.

Wu Zhixin, deputy director of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, told reporters that the DC mode and the AC mode have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of the DC mode is that the charging speed is relatively fast, but the charging pile for this model is relatively large and the floor space is relatively large. Input and output are not proportional to each other. In the initial stage of the development of new energy vehicles, the State Grid is certainly not willing to invest in such charging piles.

Relatively speaking, it is not costly and easy to operate for charging piles based on alternating current mode.

At present, electric vehicles are still in the exploratory stage, and the industry has not formed a unified opinion on charging standards. Rong Wenwei told reporters: “A parking space can only park one car, and it is not possible to install a variety of charging piles around it. From the perspective of social cost, we tend to use AC power, especially in slow charging and household charging. In this case, consumers are not required to install the charging converter."

In an interview with the media, Zhao Jianguo, a director of China Southern Power Grid, said that the battery technology is now closed, which is one of the bottlenecks in the development of electric vehicles. According to regulations, the number of charge and discharge of the battery should be more than 3,000 times, but the test results made by the State Grid and China Southern Power Grid show that the number of battery charge and discharge on the market does not exceed 500 times.

Qian Liangguo also pointed out that at present there are many high-rise residential buildings in China, and the problem of household electric power allocation (insufficient) cannot fully promote the charging model. In addition, some fast charging modes, which claim to be able to charge the battery for 80% or more minutes, can also damage the battery and cause its performance to decay quickly.

However, some people in the auto industry told this reporter: “Whether it is charging or changing the battery, the battery's own technology is now very hard. There was already a problem of battery self-ignition. From another point of view, if there is a relatively large battery in the international community, Technical breakthroughs, even if it takes a few minutes to charge, may not be too damaging to its battery performance. But the problem is that there is no such good technology."

The industry believes that an important prerequisite for the promotion of electric vehicles now is that each car manufacturer and battery company should not blindly introduce or develop some dazzling technologies. They should sit down and discuss the mode of the battery and charging station, the future of electric vehicles. The development trend, and also in combination with power technical standards, has developed electric vehicles and batteries suitable for domestic roads and existing power supply configurations.

Third-tier car enterprises "curve crossing"

In 2009, the “Regulations for the Adjustment and Revitalization of the Automotive Industry” injected a booster for the development of domestic electric vehicles. The domestic major auto groups Dongfeng, FAW, BYD, Chery, and Geely have accelerated the pace of development of their electric vehicles. In particular, car companies that are lagging behind traditional energy vehicles, such as Zhongtai and Zhongke Lifan, have also joined new energy vehicle promotion teams. Even without the vehicle manufacturing experience, Wanxiang started to build pure electric vehicles.

Wu Jianzhong, chairperson of Zhongtai Automobile, once said in an interview with reporters that he hopes to achieve overtaking of the corner through new energy vehicle projects. However, in fact, Zotye, who had built the car, did not have battery technology. Finally, Wan Xiang provided the battery. However, without the universal experience in vehicle manufacturing, the vehicle was bought from Hainan Mazda and the electric vehicle was modified. Neither of these companies has mastered the entire vehicle manufacturing technology for electric vehicles.

Many auto makers have focused their attention on government procurement. “During the demonstration operation of new energy vehicles, these vehicles are not suitable for sale to individuals. It is too expensive. At the same time, the technology of new energy vehicles is still in the process of improvement. If the government intensively purchases, it will facilitate vehicle manufacturers to collect information and improve the efficiency of services. Even if the proportion of government procurement is 10% to 15%," said Chen Xiaohai.

According to public information, BYD Auto, a leader in the promotion of pure electric vehicles, has only 400 models purchased by the government. The relevant person in charge of the BYD Public Relations Department told the reporter: “We expect that government subsidies will be in place and sell pure electric vehicles to private consumers. After all, the prices of pure electric vehicles are too expensive for ordinary consumers.”

Visible, the car company's electric car project ushered in profitable day is still far in the future, but so many car companies betting Bao new energy vehicles, must be because of profitable. The allocation of huge amounts of national special financial funds may be the real motive of many auto companies.