New energy vehicle power lithium battery mobile charging market encounters embarrassment
With the explosive growth of electric vehicles and the mismatched demand for vehicle piles, service platforms dedicated to providing mobile charging have emerged one after another.
To this end, the reporter selects "door-to-door charging" to charge after searching for a nearby charging car by operating "E about charging". On the afternoon of April 15th, reporters on Yumin East Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, waited for a recharge truck with "E-Charge". The reporter noticed that on the body of the truck, it was written that "the pre-stored charging price is as low as 0.99 yuan per kilowatt-hour".
"This is an expired advertisement, and it has not been replaced yet, so how could it be so cheap." According to the driver of the supplementary tram, the current mobile charging fee is 4.99 yuan per kWh, which includes a charging fee of 0.8 yuan/kWh and a service of 4.19 yuan/kWh. fee. In addition, if the car to be charged is within 10 kilometers, a door-to-door fee of 35 yuan will be charged, and if it exceeds 10 kilometers, it will be increased by 8 yuan/km.
In fact, compared to the fixed charging pile of 2 yuan, the price of mobile charging is not cheap. But despite this, according to the driver, the actual profit is meager because the mobile charging car needs to be equipped with staff, put on manpower and make up for the transportation fee of the tram itself.
The entry of enterprises confirms the market demand for mobile charging from the side. But there is no need to have market feasibility. Due to the large investment in mobile charging costs and the slow return of funds, on the one hand, there is a market eagerness close at hand, on the other hand, mobile charging companies have fallen into the development mire of "necessity but no market" and "appealing hard to sell".
The reporter then called the "E-About Charging" customer service to learn that the company has put more than 40 electric vehicles in Beijing for C-end customers. It is worth mentioning that most of the current business is actually concentrated on the B side, that is, various electric vehicle time-sharing operators, taxi companies, travel agencies, etc.
In this regard, Ding Rui, founder of Zhichong, believes that mobile charging occurs when the current business model of charging piles is not good, and this charging method is not ideal in terms of efficiency or environmental protection.
Zheng Junyi, deputy general manager of Xingxing Charge, holds the same view. He believes that mobile charging is a product of the "empty window period" that appeared in the early stage of the layout of charging piles. With the improvement of the charging pile business model and the advancement of charging technology, it will gradually fade out of the historical stage.
Is it a fake demand or a real demand?
The reporter learned that mobile charging, as a charging form other than fixed charging, is used to quickly replenish electric vehicles anytime, anywhere. At present, there are mainly two kinds of charging facilities in the market, one is a hand-push, traction or vehicle-mounted charging treasure; the other is a mobile electric vehicle equipped with an energy storage battery or a diesel generator.
At present, a number of companies including Tedian, BAIC New Energy, Potevio New Energy, and Wanzun New Energy have successively entered the mobile charging field. In an interview with reporters, Jing Kai, deputy general manager of the Beijing company, said that mobile charging has got rid of site restrictions, and has obvious advantages in improving the utilization rate of vehicles and reducing vehicle electricity costs. It can effectively solve the anxiety of electric vehicle battery life and digest the excess capacity of fixed charging facilities.
Unfortunately, there is still no business model in the mobile charging market at present, and the mobile charging service platforms established by most companies generally encounter profitability difficulties. In this regard, Jing Kai said frankly that the procurement cost and operating cost of mobile charging equipment are high, and the return of funds is slow. At the same time, limited by the low utilization rate, there is no wide range of application scenarios for mobile supplementary electric vehicles, and it is difficult to form a market scale.
During the reporter's visit, it was found that the current cost of the energy storage battery in the vehicle-mounted mobile power bank is about 2,000 yuan/kWh, and the cost of the 50-kWh mobile power bank alone is 100,000 yuan, but the average daily revenue is very small. The cost of mobile supplementary trams is even more expensive.
An industry insider revealed to reporters that the procurement cost of a 100 kWh mobile supplementary tram is generally 500,000 yuan, and the daily revenue of each mobile supplementary tram is only about 400 yuan. Since the vehicle also needs to be equipped with two shifts of drivers, including labor costs, electricity costs and the transportation cost of the mobile supplementary tram itself, the business operation is basically in a state of making ends meet.
In addition, large-scale mobile batteries also face prominent problems such as large volume, heavy weight, and large energy loss. According to the reporter's observation, taking the lead-acid ammonium battery of 500 kWh as an example, its volume is equivalent to that of two container trucks, and its weight is 20 tons. In the process of continuous discharge, the heat is serious, and it must be supplemented by an air conditioner to maintain a constant temperature.
In an interview with the media, Wang Hao, CEO of "E-About Charging", said that a large mobile battery "will lose 20% of power once it is transported, 20% from the grid input to the battery, and another 20% from the battery output to the electric vehicle. Battery quotation More than 7 million yuan, and the service life is 2 years." If the original factory is not responsible for recycling after two years, the user needs to deal with it by himself, which invisibly increases the cost.
Based on this, "E-about charging" chooses to charge the vehicle in the form of diesel power generation. Although "every 3 liters to 3.5 liters of diesel can meet the demand of 30 kWh of electricity for an electric vehicle", the statement that "it is better to directly drive a gasoline-powered vehicle with oil-generated electricity" directly points to the rationality of the existence of diesel-supplemented electric vehicles.
Echelon utilization is beneficial to reduce costs and encourage the coexistence of multiple formats of charging
Data shows that the number of new energy vehicles in my country is increasing year by year, and it is expected that by 2020, the number of electric vehicles in the country will exceed 5 million. In Jing Kai's view, the charging field will require the coexistence of multiple formats.
He believes that mobile charging is a useful supplement to the electric vehicle charging network, which specifically solves the key problems of traditional new energy vehicles, such as short cruising range, long charging time, and high cost of charging station construction, which hinder the promotion and application of new energy vehicles.
"With the advancement of the technical customization of mobile charging vehicles, when the cost of mobile charging is equal to the price of charging piles, the mobile charging business will usher in an explosion." Jing Kai said, considering the time it takes to reach the public charging pile, parking fees and emergency response scene, mobile charging has certain applicability in the city.
In fact, as the end of life of early pure electric vehicle power batteries in my country is approaching, mobile charging can also digest retired power batteries and play a role in promoting the cascade utilization of electric vehicle energy storage batteries.
The reporter learned that the new energy vehicle power battery will generally be replaced when the battery capacity is lower than 80%. The price of decommissioned old batteries is only one-third to one-half of new batteries, but they still meet the requirements of energy storage batteries. The application of these batteries will greatly reduce the cost of charging systems.
