New energy vehicle owners have ushered in the annual moment of scolding, accusing their cars of being "electric dads".
From 13 to 16 December, most of the country was enveloped by the most intense cold wave of the winter. From December 15 to 20, the northern region ushered in continuous low temperatures, with the minimum temperature close to the extreme value of the same period in history, and Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia experienced severe cold weather of more than minus 40 degrees.
In such extremely cold weather conditions, many owners of new energy vehicles have encountered trouble, and the low temperature in winter has had a significant impact on the experience of using electric vehicles.
The first is the problem of battery life, according to the ** test, the models participating in the test generally have a significant drop in battery life in the winter environment of minus 20 degrees, and even some models have a battery life achievement rate of only more than 30%.
According to the actual test of car owners, it has become commonplace for the range of electric vehicles to drop sharply in winter. Even if the heater is turned on, the battery life usually does not reach half of the nominal battery life, and some even only a quarter. Some car owners complained that his car had a nominal range of 300 kilometers, but it actually drove 78 kilometers, and the range was lost by three-quarters.
The problem of winter range has always been a difficult problem to solve, and from a scientific point of view, there is actually no feasible solution to this problem. This is because lithium-ion batteries typically use a liquid electrolyte, which becomes very viscous at low temperatures, resulting in a decrease in battery activity, resulting in severe loss of range and charging speed.
In addition to the problem of the battery itself, the heating system is also a large power consumer. Unlike gasoline vehicles, which rely on the temperature of the engine to dissipate heat, the air conditioning and heating of electric vehicles are completely dependent on electricity**, especially PTC air conditioners, which consume a staggering amount of energy.
Taking the NIO ES8 as an example, the front and rear air conditioners have a power of nearly 10 kilowatts, and the battery can be exhausted in five hours just by turning on the air conditioner.
In addition to the battery life problem, many new energy vehicle owners have observed that the electricity cost of public charging piles is obvious this winter**.
Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Qingdao and other places have a significant increase in the price of charging piles, ranging from a few corners to one yuan, and the price of Tesla charging piles in some areas during the preferential charging period (21:00 to 9:00 the next day) has increased from the original 108 yuan degree ** to 129 yuan, and even some car owners reported that it is almost difficult to find a trace of public charging piles below 1 per kilowatt-hour.
The charging pile *** is mainly related to the ** of the charging service fee. At present, most charging operators are losing money, so it is only a matter of time before the price increases. However, this wave of price increases, combined with the range decay of electric vehicles, makes new energy vehicle owners feel particularly uneasy this winter.
Despite the price increases, the use of electric vehicles is still more economical than that of gasoline vehicles. Considering the sharp increase in electric vehicle power consumption in winter, according to the calculation of 20 kWh per 100 kilometers, even if the most extreme charging cost is calculated at 2 yuan, the cost per kilometer is still about 4 cents.
In contrast, gasoline vehicles also experience higher fuel consumption in the winter when the temperature is cold, so electric vehicles are still more cost-effective from an economic point of view.
The problem, however, is that gasoline-powered vehicles are far more convenient to use than electric vehicles. Fuel vehicles can use heaters at any time, and the interior of the car is warm and comfortable, so you don't have to worry about battery life anxiety or the location of the charging station. In contrast, EV owners have to carefully calculate and plan routes in order to have a range, and charging needs to be clearly planned.
In order to save power, it may be necessary to either not turn on the heater or set the heater temperature very low, resulting in insufficient temperature in the car, but even then, the battery life problem is still unavoidable.
Obviously, it is still too early for new energy vehicles to replace fuel vehicles, at least in the current situation, new energy vehicles in the northern region cannot completely replace the role of fuel vehicles. For car owners in the northern region, fuel vehicles are still more reliable and practical, and before the mass production of solid-state batteries, it is difficult for new energy vehicles to truly replace fuel vehicles.
Li Bin called on car companies to join the battery swap: the chassis transformation will be one or two million, and the more 1,000 will be sold and it will be back.
At this year's NIO Day brand event, Li Bin, founder of NIO, spent more than two hours answering 140 questions of concern to the outside world, including the issue of battery swapping, which has attracted widespread attention.
Since the introduction of battery swapping by NIO, questions about its battery swap system have not stopped. Some people believe that the high investment cost and long payback period of NIO's battery swap station are the main reasons for its huge losses.
Li Bin responded that battery swapping is not a burden on NIO, and the loss of the battery swap service itself is limited. The depreciation cost of a single battery swap station is about 30 to 400,000 yuan a year, and 60 orders a day can achieve profitability. In Shanghai, the average order volume of a single battery swap station has reached 80, achieving profitability.
Li Bin also called on other car companies to join the battery swap mode, proposing that the chassis transformation cost is low, one or two million yuan is enough, "sell 1,000 more cars and come back".
NIO has set up a special team to assist partners in the development of battery-swapped models. He stressed that NIO's opening of battery swaps is not to reduce costs, but to save long-term revenue and resources.
As of December 6, NIO has deployed 2,200 battery swap stations, 3,485 charging stations and 20,455 charging piles across the country. In order to expand the circle of friends of battery swapping, NIO announced that it will cooperate with Changan Automobile and Geely Automobile in battery swap business.
In less than a month, NIO has reached an agreement with two auto companies to jointly promote cooperation in the establishment of battery swap standards, network construction and sharing, model research and development, and efficient battery asset management mechanisms. Li Bin revealed that the follow-up will be with 4-5 car companies to negotiate cooperation related to battery swapping.
In the third quarter of this year, NIO's deliveries reached 55,432 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 754%, an increase of 135 month-on-month7%。However, compared to its competitors, NIO's sales growth was relatively small, and the scale of its losses widened further.
In the quarter, NIO posted a net loss of 45600 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 108%。According to statistics, in less than 6 years of car manufacturing, NIO has accumulated losses of more than 80 billion yuan.
In the past, we have repeatedly emphasized that the construction of the battery swap station system is not completed by one car company alone, and more car companies need to join in order to ensure the sustainable development of the battery swap station system.
NIO has finally begun to introduce other partners to participate in the construction of battery swap stations, but the biggest question at present is to what extent other car companies are involved, and how much revenue can they generate for NIO's battery swap businessWhether this will be enough to save NIO, which is suffering from heavy losses, is still unknown.