Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

"overcharging in the south and changing electricity in the north."

In recent years, the above technical route has been regarded by the new energy vehicle industry as an excellent means to "solve the problem of energy replenishment between the north and the south".

However, a recent blizzard in Northeast China took the lead in breaking the defense when the "power change in the north" was said.

Due to the low temperature and snow, the chassis of the pure electric vehicle freezes, and the driver needs to use a tool to break the ice (or use a radiator to remove the ice) before changing electricity, resulting in an increase in the time it takes for each vehicle to change electricity, resulting in low efficiency. Some taxi drivers waiting in line to change electricity sent a video message saying that after waiting in line for several hours, they were still unable to complete the change of electricity.

It can be seen that the originally very fast power exchange mode is also vulnerable to a single blow in the environment of low temperature superimposed snowfall. The experience of "changing electricity for five minutes, deicing for an hour and queuing for more than half a day" has not only made some car owners sigh, but also made the route of "changing electricity in the north" controversial.

If the change of electricity is not good, what should be used to save the pure electric vehicles in the north next winter?

"01" fast charging and changing electricity are caught in the predicament of low temperature? "in fact, it is helpless to put forward the idea of 'changing electricity in the north' in the industry."

Li Shu, a veteran charging service provider, said helplessly: both people in the industry and pure electric car owners in the north have placed high hopes on the "power exchange route," hoping that this model can break through the problem of slow DC fast charging efficiency in the low temperature environment in the north.

Indeed, when it comes to winter, the topic of "electric dads" of electric cars in northern China is discussed almost every year, and there has been no better solution.

Although the number of direct current fast filling piles in northern cities has increased in the past year or two, as soon as the weather is cold, there will inevitably be a "run" phenomenon for direct current fast filling piles, which were barely enough in summer.

"the reason is very simple: the low-temperature activity of lithium batteries reduces the battery life of pure electric vehicles, and the charging demand increases. At the same time, the charging speed of lithium batteries will also decrease at low temperatures, resulting in slower charging efficiency and longer charging time." Li Shu said that electric cars can charge 80% of the electricity in 30 minutes in summer, but it takes an hour or more in winter.

It is precisely because the "overturning rate" of charging piles has decreased significantly, so when it comes to the low temperature environment in winter, there will be long queues of DC charging stations in the north. Northern cities explore the "power exchange mode", precisely in order to solve the above problems.

"after all, if you change electricity for three or five minutes, one change station is as efficient as ten quick-charging piles, which is very efficient according to reason." According to Li Shu, as of the third quarter of this year, electric taxis have been launched in Beijing, Changchun and other cities. Once the effect of testing the water is good, the power exchange mode may be promoted and popularized in the field of household cars.

However, no one expected that the icing problem of the chassis caused by the recent cold wave has become an obstacle for some taxi drivers and owners in the north to change electricity. In order to solve the problem of low-temperature power exchange, the relevant functional departments in Changchun also told the media that a new replacement power station will be built, each with 60 batteries.

"but as long as the number of models for changing electricity increases and the efficiency of changing electricity fails to keep up, the ultimate result will be to address the symptoms rather than the root of the problem." Li Shu revealed that the current northern power exchange line is experiencing an endless cycle similar to winter fast charging: a big increase in demand and inefficiency.

Due to the limited station, it takes a certain time to open the chassis to form ice, and the energy replenishment efficiency of the low-temperature exchange station is even much lower than that of the exchange station with more than a dozen DC fast charging piles. What's more, when the battery is at a low temperature, it will not be full of "vitality" because of centralized charging in the warehouse.

"to put it simply, even if the car owner changes a battery, he may have to change it again after running for 150 kilometers." Li Shu explained that the service life of pure electric vehicles is greatly reduced in winter, resulting in an increase in the frequency of power exchange and a doubling of the pressure of changing power stations.

Some media also reported that in order to ease the queuing situation and speed up the flow of batteries in some power stations, the cars were replaced with batteries before they were fully charged. The end result is that the car owner may exchange a 30% battery for a 40% battery, basically at the pace of queuing up to change electricity soon.

It can be seen that the seemingly convenient power exchange mode can not save the cold winter problem of electric vehicles in the north. Is it difficult that the pure electric car owners in the north really don't deserve winter?

If so, why have pure electric cars become so popular in the equally cold Nordic countries in recent years?

The Nordic "homework" of "02" is very difficult to copy. Today, the Nordic countries have become the main battlefield for independent new energy vehicles to "go to sea", among which Norway is the first stop for China's independent brands to "go to sea." The reason, I have to mention, is that Norwegian consumers have a high recognition of pure electric vehicles.

According to the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Commission, 176300 cars were sold in Norway in 2021, of which 64.5 per cent were pure electric vehicles, accounting for about 2/3 of the total; according to the Norwegian Electric vehicle Association, pure electric vehicles are expected to account for 80 per cent of new car sales in Norway in 2022.

In the impression of many people, Norway is close to the Arctic Circle, with snow flying all over the sky in winter. In the cold environment, Norway should also have the same problems as the northern part of China, such as shrinking range and low charging efficiency of pure electric vehicles.

Why are electric cars so popular locally? Is the experience worth using for reference?

"in fact, the development of electric cars in Norway is different from that of northern cities." As the technical backbone of a brand of independent new energy vehicles in northern Europe, Yang Ming has been assigned by the company to inspect markets such as Norway and Sweden, and has a lot of feelings about this.

First of all, the climate in Norway is not as cold as imagined. Except for the extremely cold areas near the Arctic Circle, most of Norway's population is concentrated in the southeast coastal areas, "and the winter temperature in major cities is usually above 0 degrees, and the annual average temperature in the capital Oslo is 7 degrees."

In contrast, in Changchun, the daytime temperature is below minus 12 degrees Celsius, and the environment for pure electric vehicles is more demanding than in most coastal cities in Norway. Secondly, the land area of Norway is small, and the living circle of the urban population is generally limited.

"many residents of Norway generally commute at a distance of 40 to 50 kilometers, and the requirements for driving are low." The report of the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics also shows that most of the daily trips of Norwegian electric car owners are within 80 kilometers in winter and 120 kilometers in summer.

Even if there is a 40% discount on the range in winter, a car with a range of 300 kilometers can still meet the daily commuting needs of ordinary local residents.

So the question is, the working day commuting distance of car owners in most cities in China is usually no more than 80 kilometers, so why is there anxiety about driving?

"this is because Norway has perfect charging facilities and there is a row of charging piles within a few kilometers of densely populated communities." Yang Ming explained that even with a daily charge, Norwegian pure electric car owners are not afraid of not finding a charging pile nearby, so they do not have too much anxiety about charging and battery life.

Data show that Norway now has more than 1100 public fast charging stations and 7500 public ordinary charging stations, which is perfect for a small country with an area of only 385000 square kilometers (with a population of about 5.4 million). And that doesn't count as a private stake.

On the other hand, although the number of charging infrastructure has also increased in recent years, most of them are concentrated in the south and first-tier cities. In most cities, the charging demand for pure electric vehicles is concentrated in the central urban area, but the central fast charging facilities are in short supply, and a large number of charging stations in the suburbs are idle.

"people in Norway sell 100000 electric cars all year round, but they can sell 3 million electric cars a year in China, which can't be compared. Not to mention the urban centers with high demand, there are not so many venues that can build DC fast charging stations. More fast charging stations can really be built to meet the charging needs of car owners in winter, and more than half of them will have to be idle in summer."

A charging station operator in Shenyang said frankly that at present, the problem of replenishing energy for pure electric vehicles in winter in northern China is basically unsolved. The only thing that can be done is to improve the preheating and heat preservation ability of the electric vehicle battery, improve the fast charging efficiency and prolong the battery life. At the same time, focus on the layout of slow charging piles, according to the car scene, divert users with charging needs.

Is it difficult that only by communicating slowly can we save the pure electric vehicles in the north and middle of the cold?

"03" slow charging is the king in the north. "now I'm really afraid of winter. Cars can't bear to drive, and it's troublesome to find charging piles everywhere."

Although there are psychological preparations, but after the winter this year, the pure electric car battery attenuation, charging difficulties, or let Shenyang netizens Xiao Xie feel depressed. The painful experience of charging in the cold wind even made Xiao Xie give up the idea of driving and take the subway as much as possible.

Due to the low temperature environment, his electric car has a 40% discount on the range of his electric car, which originally has a range of 301 km and only 180 km. His daily commute basically needs to be recharged every three days. In order to reduce the pain of waiting to be recharged, he often goes out in the middle of the night to recharge.

"online car-hailing and freight-hailing masters are the most annoying for private car owners to recharge at night, and private car owners are also very annoyed with commercial vehicle drivers." Xiao Xie said frankly that after 8 p.m., it is the peak of the urban DC charging station, and commercial vehicles also have to wait to recharge and continue to run the night shift.

As private car owners are also waiting to be recharged so that their cars can be fully charged to work early tomorrow morning, once the efficiency of fast charging is inefficient, there will be long queues at charging stations, and no matter what kind of car owners will inevitably have to sacrifice their rest time, "a ride-hailing master complained to me about why private cars can't go home to recharge and take a slow sleep."

As a matter of fact, a large number of pure electric private car owners, including Xiao Xie, do not want to go back to their neighborhoods to charge slowly. After all, private car owners seldom use their cars at night, and they are even more reluctant to brave the cold wind to grab piles with self-financing commercial vehicles. "but look, can the slow piles in residential areas meet the demand?"

As of October, member units have reported 1.68 million public charging piles, of which 970000 are slow charging piles, according to data from the China charging Union. The number seems to be very large, but some people in the industry say frankly that in recent years, the increment of slow filling piles is mainly concentrated in new residential areas and new houses, and it is generally difficult for foreign car owners to recharge.

The parking lots in the old urban areas of many cities still do not have the conditions to build slow filling piles, either because of the consideration of electricity load, or the property is restricted for safety reasons, even if it is a slow filling pile that comes with the car, it is not easy to install it on your own parking space.

"if there are enough slow charging piles in the parking lot, users can use off-duty time to recharge, regardless of charging efficiency, public fast charging piles can naturally be left to commercial vehicles, so the pressure on public charging stations will be greatly reduced." Xiao Xie said frankly that although the problem of endurance attenuation of electric cars in winter is still inevitable, more slow charging piles can be arranged. "overcharging in the south and slow charging in the north, I think this is the king."

Xiao Xie's idea has also been recognized by Li Shu, a person in the industry. Li Shu believes that if the old city does not have the conditions for the construction of slow charging, can we consider introducing charging service enterprises to build more slow charging piles in the parking lot of commercial office buildings?

After all, the daily car use scene of most private car owners is nothing more than commuting to and from work, there will be at least eight hours at work, the car is parked in the office parking lot, motionless, since it is impossible to use bedtime to recharge slowly. In that case, it is also possible to use slow charging during the working period.

[conclusion] obviously, public fast charging is more suitable for commercial vehicle users who need to race against time. Once a certain number of slow charging piles are built in residential areas and office buildings, it can divert the charging needs of private car owners to a certain extent, reduce the pressure on public fast charging stations, and improve the utilization efficiency of public charging stations in winter.

Instead of thinking about smashing ice and changing electricity at low temperature, the new energy vehicle industry should make more efforts to balance the location distribution of public fast charging stations in the north, and at the same time focus on the construction of slow charging piles to adapt to the characteristics of different car owners' car scenes, and then through the way of shunt charging, to solve the problem of low-temperature charging and alleviate the anxiety of charging electric vehicles in northern cities in winter.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: know Notes (ID:dongdong_note), author: Shenle, Editor: Qin Yan

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