"Eleventh" expressway charging station. Photo by Bai Haotian, reporter of Beijing News Beike Finance,
, long queues, difficult to find, and the charging sockets are not matched... Will new energy vehicles on highways still face the above problems during holidays?
During the National Day in 2022, the reporter visited high-speed charging and swapping stations around Beijing and found that the energy replenishment pressure in the charging area of Beijing-nan Expressway new energy vehicles was lower than expected, and there was only queueing during some time periods. Compared with waiting for the charging pile to charge, the battery swapping station operates more efficiently.
Zhang Hong, Secretary-General of the New Energy Vehicle Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, believes that the overall high-speed traffic flow to Beijing is not large, so new energy vehicles have failed to face the phenomenon that the pressure to replenish energy is increased due to the National Day holiday.
However, there was still a case of insufficient battery swap and charging facilities in the section of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway from Guangdong to Changsha, Hunan, and finally, when the power was exhausted, the case of asking for help from the trailer was requested. Currently, on average, each high-speed service area generally has 4-6 charging piles, and there are fewer battery swap facilities. Once the energy replenishment facilities encounter peak on the road, the energy replenishment facilities will still be in a state of difficulty.
At the same time, Zhang Hong pointed out that according to statistics from professional institutions, there are currently 6,618 expressway service areas in my country, of which 3,102 service areas have installed 13,374 charging facilities. There are 1.575 million public charging piles that have been built in my country. Public charging piles laid in highway service areas only account for less than 1% of the total number of public charging piles in the country. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for improvement in improving highway energy replenishment services.
During the peak period, the pressure of charging, replacing and energy replenishment of Beijing South Expressway was lower than expected, but there was still queueing in some time periods
11, the Beijing News Shell Financial reporter went to the Doudian service area in the direction of Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway into Beijing. Doudian Service Area is one of the few areas on the main road to Beijing, , Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway, , which can be charged for new energy vehicles. After about 6 hours of observation, the reporter of Beike Finance found that the overall energy replenishment pressure in the area is not too great, but there is room for improvement in charging old cars, supporting services, etc. There are two charging areas in the
Doudian service area, namely the State Grid charging station and the NIO charging and swapping station. The State Grid charging station has 4 60kWh fast charging piles, and the NIO has 2 fast charging piles and 1 second-generation battery swapping station.
From 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on October 6, about 20 new energy vehicles were visited to the Doudian service area for charging, including private cars and commercial vehicles (trucks). Among them, the queue was more obvious from 11:30 to 13:30 noon, and there was no queue at other times.
During the above period, about 4 new energy private cars were charging, and soon 4 new energy trucks entered the charging station one after another. The charging piles that were already in use seemed a little "stretched".
During the interview, Mr. Li, a driver of the new energy truck queuing to charge, told the Beike Finance reporter: "There are still few charging piles at present. We often queue up. It is not easy to pick up goods during the day and night. There is no rest area next to the charging station. I dare not leave when queuing, nor do I dare to leave for too long when charging, for fear that the connection is unstable and disconnected, and the charging gun will be snatched away by others."
Beike Finance reporter noticed that the service time of the four fast charging piles of the State Grid is 30 minutes to 60 minutes, which means that if there is no loss of idle time, it can serve 96 to 192 new energy vehicles every day.
Since the charging station occupies a small area, queuing and resting problems are also challenges that car owners must face. If the charging pile is damaged, there are no service personnel on duty nearby. According to users, it is difficult to dial the service hotline of State Grid .
A NIO staff member told the reporter of Beike Finance that the charging service pressure in the Doudian service area will be greater in the evening and night.
"New energy vehicles are developing so fast, and our energy replenishment guarantee must be improved. I sincerely hope that the country can set up more charging piles on the highway to solve our charging waiting problem." said Mr. Li, a driver of the new energy truck.
Regarding the replenishment of commercial vehicles, Zhang Hong pointed out that the biggest difference between commercial vehicles, especially transport vehicles, and passenger vehicles is that their travel purpose is clear and the route is clear, so they dare to use new energy as power. At the same time, on the same route and location, there will be a phenomenon of transport vehicles gathering together to replenish their energy.
Zhang Hong believes that transport vehicles generally do not choose any road including tourist routes like passenger cars, but choose relatively fixed transportation main roads between cities. Therefore, it is possible to predict that high-speed service areas often used by transport vehicles are often used. The method of giving priority to adding energy replenishment facilities in the main transportation road service areas should solve the problems caused by the concentrated crowding of energy replenishment of transport vehicles.
Old new energy vehicles cannot charge them? How to solve the interface and protocol problems?
While the queuing problem still brings some trouble to users, a reporter from Beike Finance also witnessed the "charging dilemma" of a 2016 BAIC EV150 sedan.
Ms. Luo and her husband live in the Yongding Road area in western Beijing. From Yongding Road to Zhuozhou , they then return. The BAIC EV150 pure electric sedan they drove encountered the difficulty of "cannot charge" halfway.
"We still have 50% of the power. We want to charge it in the Doudian service area and go home steadily after charging." Ms. Luo said this.
, but EV150 cannot match any charging gun. With the help of Beike Finance reporters and staff from nearby NIO battery swap stations, they tried to connect the four charging guns for more than 20 times, but still failed to charge.
"Charging in this place has always been troublesome. Before, all four of our guns could be used, but later it became more and more difficult. Last time we came, we could only charge the No. 2 gun. Unexpectedly, we can't even charge the No. 2 gun now." Looking at Ms. Luo's anxious expression, the staff of the NIO battery swap station invited them to try the NIO charging gun.
After some attempts, the two charging guns of NIO cannot "shake hands to charge" with the EV150's vehicle.
"The remaining amount of electricity persisted at the Dujiakan toll station. After getting off the expressway, the rescue vehicle took us back to the home of Yongding Road." Ms. Luo and her husband embarked on an uncertain journey to return home after trying to charge many times but could not complete it. As for why we don’t go down the highway to find charging piles, Ms. Luo bluntly said: “I’m not familiar with the place. What if we can’t charge it even if we go down?”
In response to this situation, Zhang Xiang, visiting professor at the Yellow River Science and Technology College, told the reporter of Beike Finance that the mismatch between the old car and the new pile is related to a charging pile recommendation standard issued by the state at the end of 2015. Luo Liang, deputy general manager of
Zhongjianbailian (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd., also confirmed this judgment. He pointed out that the 2015 version of the national standard was released at the end of 2015 and was introduced after 2016, so the new energy vehicles produced in 2016 are likely to mismatch the new charging piles in the charging protocol.
Zhang Xiang introduced that before and during the implementation period of this standard, some old cars may have been made in accordance with the standards before the national standard, resulting in their mismatch with the charging pile interface of the new standard.
The matching we mentioned at present is divided into two aspects. One is the matching of the interface, so that the charging gun can be inserted into the slot of the charging pile.
on the other hand is the matching of software, and the matching of communication protocol . If the software does not match, even if the gun is inserted, the user still cannot charge it. The problem that some car owners are currently facing is that the vehicle did not follow the new standards during production, resulting in mismatch in the interface.
Zhang Xiang pointed out that the mismatch caused by the different standards of new cars and old piles also exists.
"The situation like Ms. Luo may be related to the national standard and the time of purchasing a car. It is recommended that users try to ask what year the charging interface of the vehicle is when buying a car. Nowadays, new energy vehicles generally do not have this problem. They are designed according to the new national standard, and new piles are also designed and manufactured according to the new national standard. This incompatibility problem often occurs on old cars and old piles." Zhang Xiang said.
Car companies are rushing to make arrangements. Can battery swap become the best solution to alleviate mileage anxiety?
During the interview, the reporter of Beike Finance noticed that compared with the charging stations, the operating efficiency of the NIO battery swap station built in the Doudian service area is relatively efficient.
According to Mr. Zhao, a staff member of the NIO battery swap station, during the National Day holiday, the Doudian NIO battery swap station replaced more than 20 times a day. Even if the vehicles are crowded, the maximum waiting time will not exceed 30 minutes. Compared with the charging pile, the efficiency is much higher.
, as an important energy replenishment method for new energy vehicles, has been continuously favored by capital in recent years. Shengang Securities research report points out that the battery swap mode will become an inevitable form of popularization of all scenarios of new energy vehicles and an effective supplement to the charging mode. "With the improvement of policies, capital and its own product strength, 2022 is expected to become the 'first year' for the rapid development of the battery swap industry."
In July 2022, Beijing issued the "Implementation Rules for the Construction and Operation of Electric Vehicle Charging and Swap Facilities in Beijing in 2022", pointing out that operational rewards and support will be given to social public charging facilities and battery swap facilities that will be completed and put into operation from October 1, 2020 to May 31, 2022.
htmlOn August 5, the "Beijing New Energy Vehicle Charging and Swap Facilities Development Plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period" (referred to as the "Plan") released by Beijing Municipal Urban Management Committee clearly stated that it will promote the construction of battery swap stations and encourage the development of vehicle-to-electrical separation model. The "Plan" points out that we should promote the planning and site selection of battery swap stations, select and reserve construction sites that meet the conditions, and provide operational subsidies to battery swap stations that meet the conditions; encourage the construction of integrated charging and swap stations and the development of vehicle-to-power separation models, encourage battery swap companies to uniformly manage the batteries on vehicles and battery swap stations, and promote the formation of unified battery swap standards in major areas.According to statistics from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of August this year, the number of battery swap stations in various provinces in my country was 1,685, of which 280 were owned by Beijing.
However, Zhang Hong believes that by the end of this year, my country's new energy vehicle ownership is expected to reach about 10 million, but the battery swap charging facilities are expected to be less than 1.8 million seats (roots), which means that on average, there is only one energy replenishment facility for every 5.5 new energy vehicles, which is far from the goal of "one vehicle, one charging pile".
He pointed out that the current energy replenishment facilities face two options, namely charging and battery swap. The charging technology and market are relatively mature. What needs to be further improved is that various brands and manufacturers can interface and unify payment systems to ensure that consumers can use charging piles conveniently.
Zhang Hong said that battery swap facilities are favored and respected by the new energy vehicle industry because of the advantages of vehicle price reduction, short energy replenishment time brought about by the separation of vehicles and electricity, and are therefore favored and respected by the new energy vehicle industry. However, battery swap always has the problem that the construction cost of battery swap stations is much higher than that of charging piles, the brands are not universal, and the manufacturing level is not as simple as rechargeable batteries, which has led to the fact that tram swap and facilities are not as popular as charging cars and facilities. Whether to use charging or battery swap can only rely on the market's choice.
Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Bai Haotian Zhang Bing
Editor Xu Chao Proofreading Fu Chunyan
