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

In the era of new energy vehicles, a variety of new technologies, new applications and new terms emerge one after another, which makes people feel confused. For example, the 800V high-voltage fast charging technology, which is in vogue recently, gives people a subversive attitude and tries to set off a new energy vehicle fast charging revolution all over the world.

In fact, the technology was mass-produced as early as 2019.

That year, Porsche launched the world's first production car with an 800V battery architecture, the Taycan, but it didn't make much waves as an exclusive feature of an electric sports car in the early years.

Thanks to the complete domestic new energy industry chain, BYD, Xiaopeng, Ian and Polar Krypton have launched their own 800V high-voltage fast-charging models in recent years, which has become the Deep-Fried Chicken on the market.

Some people even shouted the slogan "recharge for 5 minutes and drive 200 kilometers", and the driving anxiety disappeared from the dictionary of new energy vehicles.

Is the 800V high voltage fast charging technology really so powerful, or is the gimmick greater than the reality?

In theory, high-voltage fast charging technology does open the door to the world of fast charging, but from the actual landing situation, it has little to do with drivers.

And why do you say that? We have to start with nine-year compulsory education.

According to the physical formula P (power) = U (voltage) * I (current), there are only three ways to increase the charging power: increase the voltage, or increase the current, and the two work together. Take a smartphone as an example:

The output power of iphone4 is 5V / 1A, and the corresponding power is 5W 1420mAh battery capacity, which takes 5 hours to be fully charged.

Now the output power of iQOO 10 Pro is 20V / 10A, and the corresponding power is 200W Magee 4700mAh battery capacity, which is full in about 12 minutes.

When it comes to new energy vehicles, the problem is much more complicated.

The current carried by the mobile phone battery is only a few A "generated for fever", while the power battery of the new energy vehicle carries hundreds of times the current.

Teacher Joule tells us that Q (heat) = I (resistance) T (time).

When the power of the system is rated, once the current is too large, it will not only cause a great loss of energy, but also greatly reduce the conversion efficiency, which may even cause a fatal crisis. Many new energy vehicles ignite spontaneously, to a large extent, it is because the battery heat is out of control and turns into thermal spread, which leads to accidents or tragedies.

It should be reminded that fast charging does not run through the whole charging process. In low voltage and high current mode, the maximum power charging only occurs during the period of 10% 20% electricity, while in 800V high voltage mode, the maximum power fast charging can support 30% of 80% power period.

In high voltage mode, the fast charging period is longer, the charging efficiency is faster, and the energy loss is lower. Therefore, "high voltage mode" has become the mainstream route of fast charging.

At present, the battery capacity of mainstream electric vehicles is about 50 degrees, the commonly used DC fast charging pile is 400V high voltage platform, the peak charging power is below 200kW, and the charging time is one hour, while 800V high voltage platform, the peak charging power can reach 300-500kW, which can quickly replenish energy in only 6-10 minutes, which is equivalent to a small revolution of new energy vehicles.

The pursuit of charging as fast as "refueling" has always been the goal of the new energy automobile industry, and 800V high-voltage fast charging technology is expected to make the ideal come true.

However, the ideal is beautiful and the reality is very bony.

First of all, you have to have a new energy car with 800V electrical architecture. Without it, "charging for 5 minutes and driving for 500 kilometers" has little to do with you.

At present, the models that support 800V high-voltage fast charging technology are basically more than 300000 yuan. After all, many things in the car have to be redeveloped and designed, such as battery pack, motor inverter, high-voltage connector, thermal manager and so on. Due to cost constraints, 800V high-voltage fast charging technology is temporarily difficult to be applied on a large scale in vehicles below 300000 yuan, and most car owners basically have no chance with it.

Relatively speaking, the market of more than 300000 yuan belongs to the minority market, if it is only limited to this, fast charging will become the privilege of a small number of people, and it is not conducive to the further popularization of new energy vehicles.

Second, "a good horse with a good saddle", not just a car, but also need to match the corresponding super charging piles, you can enjoy fast charging service, most of the existing charging piles need to be upgraded.

In order to meet the demand of 800V high voltage fast charging, the charging pile needs to carry higher power, which puts forward higher requirements for the safety, stability and thermal management ability of the charging module, which is the core component of the charging pile.

At present, the domestic charging module is mainly 20kW low power, the construction of charging pile requires multiple charging modules in parallel, this mode obviously can not meet the needs of fast charging, there is an urgent need for iterative upgrade.

Technology is not a problem. Huawei's self-developed super charging piles can reach up to 1000V and the peak power is 600kW. The difficulty lies in the cost. Charging stations are heavy asset investment, after all, car companies need to design, build and operate charging stations.

Li Xiang, chairman of ideal Automobile, once calculated that building 3000 overcharging stations would require 3000 small targets. The construction cost of each station is about 3.4 million yuan. This is still distributed in small charging stations along the highway. If you build a large ultra-fast charging station with 16 ultra-fast charging piles of 600kW, one site is an investment of 100 million yuan.

If fast charging wants to be popular, it is urgent to reduce the construction cost and difficulty of fast charging stations, which is also the key to solving the problem.

The biggest headache is the power construction, distribution network, power grid operation control and other challenges, even if the above have, without the support of power grid capacity, everything is in vain.

Take Xiaopeng S4 overcharge pile as an example, the maximum charging capacity of 480kW / 670A is limited by power grid capacity, which can only support bicycle charging to exert the maximum charging power of 800V model, while power shunt will occur when multiple vehicles are charged at the same time during the peak period.

The expansion of the power grid is a huge project, which can be done without the efforts of car companies or alone.

If the relevant models sell well, the construction of supporting infrastructure such as fast filling piles will be built on a large scale. On the other hand, if these car owners can not enjoy the experience service of fast charging, 800V high voltage fast charging technology is also difficult to enter the hearts of consumers.

According to the 2022 White Paper on charging behavior of Chinese Electric vehicle users, most users are sensitive to charging time and will give priority to high-power charging facilities, and 96 percent of users will choose fast charging piles.

The charging circuit has a long way to go, I will go up and down and ask for fast filling piles. If we want to achieve "charging for 5 minutes and a range of 500 kilometers", we still have a long way to go, which requires not only the accumulation of time, but also the joint efforts of the whole industry chain.

At last, there is no doubt that the emergence of 800V high voltage fast charging technology has indeed opened the way for new energy vehicles to fast charging, which is the trend of the future.

But at present, it is difficult to form a dominant position. On the one hand, the proportion of related models in the market is very small, on the other hand, it will take time for the charging pile to upgrade and replace. For car owners, the relief of "charging anxiety" is more psychological, and there is hope for the future.

Just like smartphones, from "charging for ten hours, talking for 20 minutes" to "charging for five minutes, talking for two hours", this is such a gradual process of change.

In this process, the charging efficiency will indeed be improved, but it will not be a qualitative leap, the speed of fast recharge is still difficult to compete with power replacement, and the power exchange mode still has a bright future, especially when the problems of standardization, interest pattern, safety and so on have been solved. as an effective supplement to the charging mode, the two complement each other and continue to further accelerate the popularization of new energy vehicles.

One day in the future, if "charging for 5 minutes and driving range of 500 km" is really realized, power exchange may be marginalized, but it is probably due to the higher voltage fast charging technology rather than 800V high voltage fast charging technology.

In short, 800V high voltage fast charging is just the beginning, or just a transition, just like the 3G era of mobile communications, the real formation of mobile Internet ecology is in the 4G era.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: automobile News Agency (ID:automobile-news), by Lao Wang.

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