Author: Qiu Kaijun
Hefei, a “Internet famous” city that has been popular in recent years, is striving to become the “capital of new energy vehicles”. It has welcomed the EVOGO battery swapping service of CATL.
On June 18, EVOGO battery swapping service was officially launched in Hefei, Anhui. Hefei became the first city in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration to open EVOGO battery swapping service, and the second city to start this business after Xiamen since CATL launched its battery swapping service.
EVOGO has built three fast-swapping stations in Hefei, and is expected to complete the construction of 20 fast-swapping stations in Hefei by the end of 2022.
Different from Xiamen, Hefei is one of the earliest pilot cities to promote new energy vehicles in China, and is also a city with a highly concentrated new energy vehicle industry, which is still expanding the scale of new energy vehicle applications at a high speed.
According to the draft opinions on the development plan of the new energy vehicle industry in Hefei’s “14th Five-Year Plan”, by 2025, Hefei plans to achieve an annual production capacity of 1.5 million new energy vehicles and a cumulative inventory of 1 million new energy vehicles.
The story between CATL’s EVOGO battery swapping service and Hefei is thought-provoking. By entering Hefei, it also makes those who doubt CATL’s determination to promote battery swapping understand that EVOGO battery swapping is serious.
Another New City
Again on the 18th.
On January 18th, CATL launched the battery swapping brand “EVOGO” and the integrated battery swapping solution. They compared each battery swapping block to a “chocolate”, which can be used alone or in combination to meet the power demand of different vehicle models. At that time, CATL revealed that EVOGO battery swapping service would be first launched in 10 cities.
On April 18th, CATL opened the first EVOGO battery swapping service city, Xiamen, which became the first “small green circular city”.
On June 18th, EVOGO had its second city, Hefei.
This time, EVOGO has built its first three fast-swapping stations in Hefei, which are located in Shushan District, Yaohai District, and Economic Development Zone. In order to meet the characteristics of city-wide operations, subsequent battery swapping stations will continue to be deployed, achieving a service radius of 5 kilometers in Hefei.
The opening ceremony was held at the EVOGO Hefei Yaxia station located in Shushan District, and leaders from Anhui Province, Hefei City and district levels, and EVOGO ecological partners delivered speeches and experienced standardized battery swapping services.
From the on-site video released by Epoch Power, a subsidiary of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) responsible for battery swapping business, it can be seen that the fast-swapping station in Hefei is still its main standard station, covering an area of about three parking spaces, with a single battery swap time of approximately one minute and a storage capacity of 48 battery swap blocks.
Dozens of FAW Besturn NAT EVs were parked at the ceremony, indicating that the vehicle partner has completed the initial vehicle procurement and registration.
Epoch Power’s partner for vehicle operation in Hefei is Hefei Youru Automobile Service Co., Ltd. (Youru). Founded in 2016, Youru is a company specializing in the rental, operation, and charging and swapping operation of new energy vehicles. Youru operates on a self-owned capacity model, so drivers are recruited. However, Youru still needs to prove its vehicle operation capability to attract enough and good drivers.
Drivers who have experienced battery swapping during the initial operation period expressed their satisfaction. Tao, a ride-hailing driver under Youru, said, “At the beginning, I had some concerns and felt uncertain when the battery on my car was replaced by the one at the station. Now that I see no change in the driving range and can swap the battery at any time, I can also swap 1,000 kWh of electricity for free each month. I save nearly two hours a day by not having to look for charging stations outside. Battery swapping is really convenient.”
Currently, Hefei’s charging prices are relatively high. At 6 PM, the average fast charging price is around CNY 1.4-1.8 per kWh. Compared with this, even if battery swapping prices are similar, ride-hailing drivers can save time waiting to charge.
Hefei Model
Epoch Power has two city partners in Hefei. GreenZoo provides station control solutions for EVOGO fast-swapping stations and is also EVOGO’s partner for network operations at Hefei’s station sites. Youru is an operation service provider for EVOGO’s combined battery swapping vehicles. Epoch Power, GreenZoo, and Youru will jointly serve ride-hailing drivers in Hefei.
In this model, Youru, as the owner and operator of the vehicles, has three advantages compared with traditional fuel vehicles or electric vehicle purchase models: first, it can reduce the purchase cost; second, it can share the price difference between gasoline and electricity, and have a similar experience to that of a gasoline vehicle; third, it can guarantee the residual value of electric vehicles.
Epoch Power, located in the center of this model, has partnered with FAW Besturn to build battery swapping NATs and sells or leases them to Youru through a vehicle-to-grid model; at the same time, it rents batteries to the users of the vehicles and operates at the Hefei station site with GreenZoo.
Of course, behind this model, there may still be Epoch Power’s “battery bank” company, a financial company that supports battery leasing, vehicle rental and sales, battery swapping construction, and operation. According to previous statements by CATL, these supporting companies will introduce partners to invest together.This is the ecosystem of battery swapping, and CATL is the builder of this ecosystem.
Opportunity in Hefei
From Ningde to Xiamen, and then to Hefei, CATL’s EVOGO has arrived in the Yangtze River Delta.
The Yangtze River Delta is one of the regions with the strongest demand for urban transportation in China. Hefei, both a sub-central city of the Yangtze River Delta and a national transportation hub, was chosen as the first city for CATL to launch its battery swapping service in the Yangtze River Delta. According to the general manager of ETO Service at CATL, Chen Weifeng, launching EVOGO’s battery swapping service in Hefei is significant for the improvement and enhancement of EVOGO’s battery swapping network construction.
At the same time, Hefei is also one of the pilot cities for the “application of battery swapping mode for new energy vehicles”. Leveraging its own advantages, CATL can create a standardized battery swapping service model and promote the pilot work of Hefei’s application.
In the wave of promoting new energy vehicles in China, Hefei is indeed a leader. By the end of 2020, the number of new energy vehicles in Hefei exceeded 60,000, with a daily charging amount of about 240,000 kWh, and a total of 48,000 charging piles were installed, with a vehicle-to-pile ratio of nearly 1.25:1. This is close to the level of developed cities in China (Shanghai’s ratio is about 1.1:1, and the national ratio is about 3:1). However, in terms of battery swapping, Hefei started relatively late, and there are very few battery swapping stations.
The output of new energy vehicles in Hefei is much higher than the local inventory. By the end of 2020, more than 240,000 electric vehicles were promoted in Hefei, accounting for about 5% of the total nationwide. Such well-known electric vehicle manufacturers as Ankai, JAC, and NIO are located there.
This is all in the past.
Hefei has also formulated an ambitious plan for the development of new energy vehicles and set specific goals for battery swapping.
In the draft of the “14th Five-Year” Plan for the Development of New Energy Vehicle Industry in Hefei, Hefei proposed the “2515 goal”: by 2025, the annual production capacity of new energy vehicles should reach 1.5 million vehicles. In addition, the cumulative number of new energy vehicles should reach one million, of which the electrification rate of newly added or updated buses, taxis, and online ride-hailing services in the city should reach 100% in principle; public vehicles used in postal services, logistics, environmental sanitation, and government affairs should be fully electrified; and the proportion of new energy vehicles in newly added private passenger cars should exceed 25%.
In terms of battery swapping, the plan proposes that 40 battery swapping stations should be built in Hefei, including 25 in urban areas and 15 in suburban counties.
In order to improve the promotion environment, the plan also specifically proposes to promote the commercial model of “separation of vehicle and battery,” promote the solution of battery standardization, and explore the new model of “battery bank.”To promote the development of new energy vehicles, Hefei not only attaches great importance to leadership but also plans to provide substantial support. With regard to vehicle platform innovation and business model innovation, Hefei intends to invest billions of dollars. In terms of consumer subsidies, Hefei plans to introduce a policy of replacing fuel vehicles with new energy vehicles and provide operating subsidies to companies planning to operate large-scale new energy vehicles.
The expansion of EVOGO to Hefei by CATL will undoubtedly benefit from local policies and market opportunities, creating replicable models in promoting new energy vehicles. In particular, Hefei’s approximately 10,000 taxis and nearly 10,000 active ride-hailing vehicles will gradually be replaced by pure electric models, which is an opportunity for EVOGO.
In addition, CATL’s battery swapping business is expected to integrate with Hefei’s well-developed new energy vehicle industry chain.
Hefei has a very complete and competitive new energy vehicle industry chain, including automotive companies such as JAC, Volkswagen (Anhui), NIO, Ankai, Changan, and Chery (Chaohu), as well as core components such as Gotion High-Tech, Huating Power, Juyi Motor, and Kuang-Chi Intelligence.
CATL’s chocolate battery swapping solution supports commercial, passenger, and special vehicle types, and also supports multiple scenarios. It is highly likely to form a cooperation model similar to that of FAW Pentium with the local automotive companies. In fact, senior executives from JAC Motors attended the ceremony for the launch of EVOGO in Hefei. Moreover, companies such as JAC and Ankai have strong competitiveness in the commercial vehicle field, and CATL is expected to expand the chocolate battery swapping block to the commercial vehicle market.
The Yangtze River Delta region has a thriving economy and close communication. CATL’s battery swapping service in Hefei will have a radiation effect on the surrounding areas, and it is just the beginning of CATL’s entry into the Yangtze River Delta market. In the future, not only car owners and drivers in Hefei, but also users in more surrounding cities, are expected to enjoy the benefits of CATL’s battery swapping service.
The swapping ecological system of “Ning Wang” is steadily growing.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.