Since Mr. Chen Han became the owner of an Azera ES6, he and his ES6 have become the most popular topic of conversation in our daily editorial department.
Today we're going to talk about NIO?Power, which makes Mr. Chen Xin feel good.
NIO?Power is the energy replenishment service system established by Azalea in 2017, which is a set of mobile internet-based power-adding solutions with a widely distributed network of charging facilities, relying on Azalea Cloud technology, as well as proprietary piles, super-charging piles, power-changing stations, and one-click power-adding services to form a multi-dimensional service. The charging service forms a multi-dimensional service system.
Just recently, Azera NIO Power held a 2020 online communication meeting, where Dr. Shen Fei, Vice President of Power Management at Azera, shared the progress and achievements of the NIO Power system so far, and ****together, discussed the many pain points of the current electric vehicle charging system and the solutions and new value-added experiences that the Azera NIO Power system can provide to users. The program also discusses the many pain points of electric vehicle refueling, as well as the solutions and new value-added experiences that the NIO?Power system can offer users.
Power exchange
Power exchange is one of Azera's unique forms of energy replenishment, replacing power batteries at power exchange stations to revitalize dead vehicles in a short period of time, which is highly efficient. In 2019, the company also announced that the first owner of the car will be able to enjoy "lifetime free power exchange rights".
According to the latest statistics, until March 2020, Azalea has 123 power exchange stations in 51 cities, with more than 17,000 power exchange vehicles. Based on the fact that Azera now has more than 30,000 vehicles nationwide, the penetration rate of power exchange is as high as 48.7%. Mr. Chen's ES6 is one of them, and since there are no exclusive charging piles installed for the time being, his new car has already begun its free power-swapping career three days after it landed.
Based on the existing power exchange system, Azera has also introduced battery packs with different capacities to meet users' needs, and users can choose to upgrade their batteries permanently or on a rental basis to flexibly upgrade their batteries according to their needs. After all, the cost of the power battery is the highest in the entire vehicle, and battery wear and tear is unavoidable, so the "power exchange" program is a perfect solution to this problem. According to Dr. Shen Fei's idea, if consumers only buy the car itself (excluding the battery), and the power battery is leased on a daily/monthly basis, the battery's decay will not affect the residual value of the used car. In fact, as early as when the first product ES8 Azalea launched the "Battery Rental Program", the choice of the program after the end price of the vehicle straight down 100,000 yuan, the initial battery rental monthly payment of 1,280 yuan battery rental fee, 78 consecutive months. Later on, it was changed to a monthly payment of $1,660 for 60 consecutive months. But in June 2019, the program was canceled, perhaps due to cost factors. In hindsight, it could have been a bold attempt.
New generation of power exchange station
At the exchange, Dr. Shen Fei also revealed information about the next generation of power exchange station to be launched this year, after more than 370,000 power exchanges (data as of March 2020), Azure launched a new generation of technology after review, the owner of the car can just drive in to change the power on their own, because there is no need to lift the car, and the driver doesn't even have to get out of the car. The efficiency will be significantly improved again. In addition, the new generation of power exchange stations will also have a rest room, which is convenient for car owners to take a short break.
In addition to the version change, the scale of development of the power station is also the concern of car owners, Dr. Shen Fei revealed at the meeting, the first generation of power station design capacity is 24 hours 72 times, but the busiest site has already exceeded the design capacity, reaching 76 times. As for the number of new construction this year, it should be around 50, and it will not be spread out to do it on a large scale like in 2018. In terms of layout, it will be optimized according to the big data analysis of Azure Cloud, and the most scientific method will be used to layout, which is believed to satisfy the owners.
Charging
In July 2019, Azalea launched its own super charging station, which not only has a shape and design that mirrors that of the Azalea car, but also has a sizable power of up to 100kW from a single gun. As of March 2020, Azera has now landed 25 supercharging stations with 188 supercharging stakes, and a significant portion of them have been built by Azera owners as charging partners.
According to statistics, more than 70% of Azera owners have exclusive charging piles, which is quite a high percentage. And this year, Azalea will also launch the 2.0 version of the exclusive pile. The reason why Mr. Chen Han has not yet installed the exclusive charging pile is that he is waiting for the DC fast charger with a charging power of 20kW. Exactly how fast it is, the same 100?kWh battery pack, the current 7?kW home charging pile need to take more than 13 hours to fill up; while the 20kW DC fast charging, only need 5 hours!
Charging map/app
Whether it's charging or switching, it's all about hardware, and only with the help of good software can Azera's powerful supplemental energy system be utilized to its fullest advantage. From my perspective as a car reviewer, the charging map and the app developed by Azera are the best EV charging software available on the market today.
Taking the public **** charging piles on the market as an example, different brands of charging piles often correspond to different APPs, so it's a bit difficult to get all of them, but Azure relies on the "charging map" to connect them together, and has already integrated more than 200 operators, including the State Grid, Xingxing, Teclercomputer, Wanyma, Xiaopeng, Xiaogang, and other domestic mainstream operators. Currently, it has integrated more than 200 operators, including State Grid, Star, Special Call, Wanma, Xiaopeng, Xiaogang and other domestic mainstream operators, and more than 300,000 charging piles covering 327 cities. 90% of the charging piles are connected to the payment function, and 80% of the fast charging piles have been reviewed by experts and users....... That is to say, even if the author doesn't open the Azalea, he can still charge the vehicle through the " Charging map" or "add electricity APP" to better find public **** charging pile, without having to download a bunch of APP to match.
According to the official data released by Azera, "with zero marketing and the use of the entrance is hidden under the Azera APP three-level menu, the proportion of non-Azera users is 60%".
Battery degradation and power-swapping issues
During the Q&A session at the end of the event, the media asked a few targeted questions, which Dr. Shen Fei answered one by one.
First of all, there is the issue of power battery degradation, Dr. Shen cited two examples, one is a case of very long mileage, an ES8 that has run for more than 100,000 kilometers, the battery degradation is less than 5%; the other one is the laboratory data, the battery degradation of the power battery pack after 1,200 cycles is at 3%. In fact, there is no need to worry about battery degradation due to Azera's power exchange system. And Azalea has made a gradient use of the old batteries, one is to flow to energy storage institutions, such as solar/wind power stations, and the other is to supply two-wheeled electric vehicles for practical use, Dr. Shen said that at present more than 10,000 two-wheeled vehicles have been supplied with batteries, and they are running in 20 cities.
Another question is when will the 84kWh and 100kWh batteries enter the power exchange stations? Will there be any confusion in switching, and will there be a software lock-up if a car with a 70kWh battery is switched to an 84kWh battery pack? Will there be an extra charge? Dr. Shen said that half of the power exchange stations are currently equipped with 84kWh battery packs, and by April, the vast majority of sites will have 84kWh battery packs, while 100kWh battery packs will be introduced after the fourth quarter of this year. Currently, there are only about 400 spare batteries in the system of power exchange stations, and this amount is really far less than what I expected before.
Since there are different battery specifications in the power exchange station, it may appear that there are only 84kWh battery packs, so what about the owners of 70kWh vehicles who can change to 84kWh batteries for free? Dr. Shen frankly said that technically it is easy to do, "Friends can do it, we can do it. But I personally don't quite agree with this approach." Users can continue to use the high-capacity batteries, but they have to return them within a certain period of time, or else they will consider charging or other methods, but they will not be locked out from the start.
Writing in conclusion
"The charging process is still painful!" That's Dr. Shen Fei's opening line. With the advancement of battery technology, the range of mainstream electric cars in 2020 can already reach 500 kilometers or even more, but in retrospect, these electric cars with long range can really solve our anxiety? Perhaps not yet, the battery and charging technology is in the stage of continuous progress, balancing range and charging time is a helpless move, and "power exchange" is undoubtedly a more reasonable solution, and this model is not only efficient, but also lies in this is "can be charged can be replaced can be upgraded This model is not only efficient, but also because it is "rechargeable, exchangeable and upgradable". At the same time, it can also provide corresponding battery upgrade services for different users' needs, so that users can enjoy the dividends of battery technology progress without worrying about the valuation and attenuation problems. It's no wonder that Mr. Chen Xin recites to us every day: switching power for a moment, has been switching power for a straight time.
"The competitor of pure electric car is not pure electric car, but fuel car." In Dr. Shen Fei's opinion, the power-swapping program will be adopted by many car companies in the future, and Azalea will hold an open attitude, "This is competition and cooperation in a larger dimension, only if we all do a good job together, the owners will really switch from oil cars to electric cars."
This article comes from the authors of the automobile home car family, does not represent the views of the automobile home position.