Faster than refueling! Ningde Times has launched another heavyweight passenger car release | Ningde | Times

Recently, "Transformers: Rise of the Mighty Warriors" has been a hit, in which the leader of the righteous side, Optimus Prime, is based on a heavy-duty truck. Recently, CATL has been continuously increasing its efforts in the field of heavy-duty truck battery swapping, exploring ways to quickly replenish energy for Transformers.

On June 12th, Ningde Times released the heavy-duty truck battery swapping product "Qiji Battery Swap". It is understood that this product can help new energy heavy-duty trucks replenish energy in just a few minutes, allowing them to "start at full health", even faster than filling up a box of oil. The vehicle electric separation technology will save 30000 to 60000 yuan in cost per truck per year.

Screenshot of Ningde Times Heavy Truck Battery Replacement Product Launch Conference

In recent years, CATL has continued to increase its focus on the battery swapping market, gradually extending its reach from passenger car battery swapping to commercial vehicle battery swapping, and rapidly iterating technology to seize the market. With the wave of new energy transformation sweeping from passenger cars to commercial vehicles, the sales of new energy heavy-duty trucks have also seen a "doubling growth".

According to the Forward Industry Research Institute, the market size of China's new energy heavy-duty trucks will exceed 30 billion yuan in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 19% from 2022 to 2027. The wave of new energy transformation in the commercial vehicle industry, represented by heavy-duty trucks, is approaching, and a vast market space is opening up.

New energy heavy-duty trucks welcome vast space

In the United States, the heavy-duty truck tractor "Peter Bilt 389" is well-known because it is the prototype of the Justice Party leader "Optimus Prime" in the Transformers film series.

To some extent, this also reflects the position of heavy-duty trucks in the national economy. As the main force of long-distance transportation and engineering transportation, heavy-duty trucks play an important role in economic development.

Since the beginning of this year, the heavy truck market has shown an overall recovery trend. According to a research report by Guojin Securities, according to invoicing standards, the sales of heavy-duty trucks in China were about 70000 in May 2023, a year-on-year increase of 42% and a month on month decrease of 16%. From January to May, a total of 395000 heavy-duty trucks were sold nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 21%.

In the heavy-duty truck market, the penetration rate of new energy heavy-duty trucks is still at a relatively low level. According to tram resources statistics based on insurance data, a total of 8767 new energy heavy-duty trucks were sold from January to May 2023, a year-on-year increase of 13.31%.

However, the new energy transformation of heavy-duty trucks is imminent. According to Han Zhiyu, a professor at Tongji University and a member of the International Society of Automotive Engineers, the number of heavy-duty trucks accounted for only 3.1% of the total number of automobiles in 2020, while carbon emissions accounted for nearly 40% of the automotive industry.

Therefore, the development prospects of new energy heavy-duty trucks are broad, and the penetration rate is expected to rapidly increase. At the first China Commercial Vehicle Forum held in March this year, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the CAS Member and professor of Tsinghua University, said that the market penetration rate of new energy freight heavy trucks will be only 2% in 2022, and it is preliminarily estimated that the market penetration rate will exceed 10% by 2025, and strive to be close to 50% by 2030.

Keep Optimus Prime running

However, for heavy-duty trucks, the problem that is difficult to avoid when transitioning to new energy is the long charging time. Due to the need to drive large vehicle bodies, the power battery capacity of new energy heavy-duty trucks can often reach five to ten times that of passenger cars. If charged normally, it means that the charging time can be several hours, greatly affecting the efficiency of the use of new energy heavy-duty trucks.

So the battery swapping mode has become the mainstream of new energy heavy-duty trucks. Simply replace the battery of the electric vehicle in the battery swapping station, and it can be replenished in just a few minutes. The replaced battery will be charged, stored, and uniformly distributed in a centralized charging station, greatly improving charging efficiency.

According to a research report by Open Source Securities, as of the end of 2022, battery swapping heavy-duty trucks have accounted for 50% of the share of new energy heavy-duty trucks and are the main technological direction of new energy heavy-duty trucks.

The heavy-duty truck battery swapping product "Qiji Battery Swap" of Ningde Times consists of three parts: Qiji Battery Swap Block, Qiji Battery Swap Station, and Qiji Cloud Platform.

It is reported that the Qiji battery swapping block uses the third-generation lithium iron phosphate battery from Ningde Times. This battery pack applies technologies such as non thermal diffusion and CTP grouping, and has passed over 200 safety tests. The battery system's service life can exceed 15000 times.

The Qiji battery swapping station uses adaptive stepless adjustment technology, which can cover all wheelbase heavy-duty trucks. The capacity of a single battery swapping block is 171kWh, and it can support flexible assembly of 1 to 3 blocks. The entire battery swapping process only takes a few minutes, which is faster than refueling heavy-duty trucks, allowing the "Optimus Prime" to run on the road all the time without delaying charging for too long.

The Qiji Cloud platform connects the car, battery, and battery swapping station. It is reported that the platform will rely on big data to enable asset holders to achieve real-time asset supervision and intelligent scheduling, improve operational efficiency for battery swapping station operators, enable transportation companies to plan transportation routes and manage drivers and vehicles, and enable truck drivers to make one click appointments for battery swapping and optimize circuit swapping paths.

Ningde Times stated that by adopting vehicle electric separation, each truck can save 30000 to 60000 yuan in operating costs annually. In addition, it can also effectively reduce carbon emissions. Based on a heavy-duty truck driving 200000 kilometers per year and a fuel consumption of 33 liters per 100 kilometers, the carbon emissions per vehicle can reach 174 tons per year, equivalent to the total amount of carbon dioxide that 9643 trees can absorb throughout the year. The use of battery swapping mode can effectively reduce emissions.

Is battery swapping a good business?

In fact, CATL has been continuously increasing its efforts in the field of heavy-duty truck battery swapping in recent years.

On July 28, 2020, Ningde Times announced on its official WeChat account that it had partnered with Foton Zhilan New Energy to launch China's first commercial application scenario for battery swapping heavy-duty trucks.

In September 2022, CATL announced that the company's pioneering MTB technology will be first applied to the National Electric Power Investment Qiyuanxin Power Heavy Truck Replacement Project. At that time, CATL revealed that 9 out of every 10 battery swapping heavy-duty trucks or construction machinery worldwide were equipped with CATL power batteries.

In December 2022, one of the leading enterprises in China's heavy-duty truck industry, Foton Automobile, announced that the company will jointly invest with CATL to establish a joint venture company to carry out operational leasing business for new energy batteries. The registered capital of the joint venture company is 200 million yuan.

In March 2023, Ningde Times announced that its subsidiary Ningpu Times Digital Technology Co., Ltd. had signed a cooperation agreement with Fujian Haisi Expressway New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Fujian Provincial Expressway Group, for a heavy-duty truck battery swapping project. Both parties will carry out investment, construction, and operation management of electric heavy-duty truck swapping stations. The first phase of the project will be piloted in the Changle and Luoyang River service areas of the expressway, investing in four electric heavy-duty truck swapping stations to provide timely energy replenishment services for electric heavy-duty trucks traveling between Ningde and Xiamen, and solving the "energy replenishment anxiety" of new energy heavy-duty trucks.

Why does Ningde Times frequently increase the code for heavy trucks and replace batteries?

Lin Shi, Secretary General of Intelligent Connected Vehicles of the China Europe Association, stated in an interview with reporters that the market share of new energy vehicles in the passenger car sector has exceeded 30%, but the penetration rate of new energy in the commercial vehicle sector is only about 2%. Ningde Times is expanding its commercial vehicle battery swapping business towards the future.

"The necessity of developing battery swapping stations in the field of commercial vehicles is actually greater than that of passenger cars. Because commercial vehicles themselves are means of production, drivers are racing against time to make money, and battery swapping can greatly shorten charging time and improve production efficiency." Lin Shi said.

However, Lin Shi also stated that in the short term, it is difficult to make money from battery swapping business, even companies like NIO's battery swapping business are losing money.

Previously, Shen Fei, Vice President of NIO, calculated that if calculated at 60 cents per kilowatt hour and an average of 50 kilowatt hours per order, a daily battery swapping station would exchange 50 units, resulting in an annual income of 500000 to 600000 yuan, which could basically cover venue rent and equipment depreciation. If the battery swapping station starts to charge all fees in the future, based on the weekly battery swapping of each vehicle, a battery swapping station will need to radiate approximately 350 vehicles in order to support 50 orders per day and reach a breakeven point.

It is worth mentioning that on the same day as Ningde Times released its heavy-duty truck battery swapping products on June 12th, NIO announced a price reduction of 30000 yuan for all models and adjusted the vehicle rights of the first owner of the new car, including a 6-year or 150000 kilometer warranty for the entire vehicle, with a 10-year unlimited mileage warranty for the three electric systems; 6 years of free car networking; Lifetime free road rescue. After June 12th, free battery swapping will no longer be considered as a basic vehicle benefit, and users can choose to pay a single fee for battery swapping.

Simply put, the price reduction of NIO this time can be understood as stripping the lifetime free battery swapping rights from the car price: Previously, users who purchased NIO new cars enjoyed the lifetime free battery swapping rights, and this part of the price was added to the car price. However, since then, users are not forced to "pay" for the lifetime free battery swapping rights, reducing the rights also lowers the car price.

For NIO, this operation is not only to cope with weak sales, but also to help its battery swapping station gradually move towards a charging model, giving the battery swapping station business the ability to generate revenue.

However, since the beginning of this year, NIO's sales have continued to decline, with 6155 new cars delivered in May, a year-on-year decrease of 12% and a month on month decrease of over 7%. Li Bin, the founder of NIO Auto, said at a media communication meeting held in April this year, "Assuming that the monthly sales are still 10000 units, both Qin Lihong and I will be looking for jobs."

In February of this year, Li Bin announced to the public that he had decided to add 1000 replacement power stations by 2023, and by the end of 2023, more than 2300 replacement power stations had been built.

If we follow the algorithm of "one battery swapping station radiating 350 vehicles" mentioned above, by the end of this year, the ownership of NIO cars needs to reach 805000 in order to reach the breakeven point. From January to May this year, NIO Automobile delivered a total of 43900 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of only 15.8%. As of the end of May, NIO Automobile had delivered a total of 333400 new vehicles.

This means that even NIO, the main player in the field of battery swapping, still has a long way to go to break even. The battery swapping business is still a "future oriented" business.