Is it really hopeful to replace the power station with the third generation of Weilai Automobile, which continues to lose money?

March has passed, and it's time for major automobile manufacturers to show their report cards. Judging from the weekly data of media statistics, only BYD and Ideality maintained steady growth, while the development speed of other brands slowed down.

Some of these manufacturers are due to insufficient product performance, and some are due to their own unique development path. Weilai automobile belongs to the latter.

On March 28th, the first third-generation power station of Weilai Automobile made its debut in Haikou. This power station will be put into use in early April, and Beijing, Chengdu, Wuxi, Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen and other cities will start simultaneously. The performance has been significantly improved and the service level has also increased. However, Weilai will also spend a lot of time, energy and money because of these power stations.

Where is the new third generation power station?

According to the official statement of Weilai Automobile, the third generation power station will be equipped with two laser radars and two NVIDIA chips, which will eventually reach 508TOPS, which can realize the functions of automatic parking of vehicles and self-calling of batteries.

In addition, the maximum wheelbase of the models supported by the third generation power station is increased from 3. 1 m to 3.3 m, and the wheel outer distance is also increased from 2.5 m to 2.8 m.

At the same time, the third generation power station is also equipped with charging piles. The maximum charging power of a single pile is increased to 500kW, and the maximum charging current reaches 660A, which supports NFC payment, plug and play and other functions. According to the official statement of Weilai Automobile, at present, some models of Weilai can be charged for 5 minutes and have a battery life of 400km through this charging pile.

The purpose of doing this is obvious. First, it is to improve the experience when changing electricity, and second, it is to prepare for adapting to more brands and models in the future.

Compared with the second-generation power station, the battery level of the third-generation products has increased to 2 1, the daily service times can reach 408 times, and the power exchange time can be shortened by 20%, and the service level and service efficiency have been obviously improved.

The industry believes that with the continuous iteration of technology, the single-station construction cost of the third-generation power station has also dropped significantly, which is obviously good news for Weilai Automobile.

At present, among the new energy automobile manufacturers, there are more and more models supporting the power exchange service, but so far only Weilai Automobile has fully rolled out the power exchange service.

The first generation power station of Weilai Automobile landed in May 20 18. By mid-March, 2023, there were 322 power stations1in China, including 35 power stations1in expressways, which opened up eight urban agglomerations with five verticals, three horizontals.

According to the planning of Weilai Automobile, in 2023, Weilai Automobile will add 1 1,000 power stations, with the cumulative number exceeding 2,300, and the power exchange network will be further improved.

The logic of Weilai Automobile is as follows: it is difficult to solve the problems of difficult charging, slow charging and insufficient battery life in a short time, and the power exchange service can bring users a charging experience comparable to that of gas stations, thus attracting more users and forming a virtuous circle.

At the same time, after the completion of the power exchange network, Weilai can realize various forms of income generation according to the huge user group. As for the cost, Wei Lai believes that with the improvement of power exchange network and the increase of power exchange times, the construction cost will be gradually recovered and eventually balanced.

The gap between ideal and reality

As a business model, Weilai's power exchange strategy is understandable, and Weilai is not the only one to enter the power exchange service. Geely, BAIC, Tucki, Nezha, Chang 'an and Contemporary Ampere all have certain layouts, but Weilai moves faster and invests more.

But the problem now is that many "prospects" of the power exchange model are far from reality.

The basis of the existence of the power exchange mode is that there can be no big breakthrough in the energy supplement efficiency and cruising range of pure electric vehicles in a short time. However, this problem is gradually being solved. At present, the cruising range of mainstream electric vehicles has reached 400 kilometers or even more than 500 kilometers, which can meet the daily needs of users.

Secondly, the sales volume of Weilai Automobile cannot support the whole power exchange network. The power exchange station is the infrastructure, and it must be used efficiently to play its value.

So far, the users of the power station are still the owners of Weilai, but Weilai sells less than 20 thousand vehicles a month, so it is difficult to break through in a short time. It has formed the problem that the power exchange network that has been built at a high price is vacant. Unless the battery specifications and standards of the whole industry are unified, it will be difficult to attract other brands to use it.

In addition, according to industry estimates, the cost of the first generation power station in Weilai started from 6,543.8+0.5 million yuan, the cost of the second generation power station dropped to 6,543.8+0.0 million yuan, and the cost of the third generation power station may only be several hundred thousand yuan, but even so, it will cost astronomical sums to roll out the power exchange network on a large scale.

In 2022, the net loss of Weilai Automobile reached an astonishing 65.438+04.437 billion yuan, of which the construction cost of power station replacement was one of Weilai's biggest expenses. In order to solve the loss problem, Weilai needs to increase sales and make the power exchange station fully operational. However, at this stage, the biggest difficulty in popularizing power exchange service is not changing power stations, but whether the battery specifications can be unified.

This article comes from Auto Jingwei AUTOMATRIX, the author of Easy Car Number, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.