They are busy reducing prices, and Weilai is busy building a station.

Editor/Zhang Nan

Design/design

30,000, 36,000, Dongfeng Nissan Aria 60,000, Guangfeng bZ4 30,000, Yifeng bZ4 60,000, Geely Emgrand L 30,000, BYD Qinjia DM-i launched 99,800 versions. ...

After the price reduction of Tesla 65438+1October 13, a series of domestic electric vehicles followed suit, with the highest drop of 60,000 yuan. This is just the beginning, and the smoke of the automobile price war in 2023 is inevitable.

Can a cold infect everyone? Not exactly. Whether to follow up the price war depends on what the moat of the brand is.

"In the long-term development of automobiles, if you want to be a high-end brand, you can't rely on price for quantity, but also do a good job in products, services and brands. This is the problem of Tao. In terms of' technology', like the recent 866 library clearance, there should be some phased measures, so don't be so rigid. This is our view of the overall market. " At the media communication meeting on February 6, Qin, co-founder and president of Weilai, answered his views on price reduction.

This not only answered the rumor of "Weilai price reduction" at that time-it was just the routine operation of clearing goods before product upgrading, but also answered the question of whether Weilai would reduce prices-do a good job in products, services and brands, and not change quantity with price.

The strength of Weilai's not cutting prices and exchanging prices for quantity lies in the fact that Weilai and Tesla and other price-cutting brands face different user groups and have not formed a direct competitive relationship. Second, Weilai has built a unique moat for electric vehicles with a series of services and ecological circles such as power exchange. It is difficult for users who like and recognize this ecology to switch to other brands because of the price reduction of tens of thousands of yuan.

Half a month later, on February 2 1 day, Weilai made a big move to "do a good job"-announced that the construction target of power exchange stations in 2023 would be increased from the original 400 to 1000, and more than 2,300 power exchange stations would be built in 2023.

Weilai third-generation power station released in 2022 will be deployed from March 2023, and the construction speed of adding 120 to 150 units every month will be maintained from June. The maximum power exchange capacity of the third generation power station is 408 times a day. Based on the superposition of the number of power stations and the capacity of power stations, the overall capacity of power stations in Weilai has increased more rapidly.

Weilai currently has about 300,000 vehicles. As of February 24th, 2023, Weilai has laid out 13 15 power stations all over the country, including 348 expressway power stations, 2,345 charging stations, charging piles13,763 and 630,000 third-party charging piles.

Because changing electricity is more convenient than charging, more and more Weilai car owners choose to change electricity to replenish energy. How convenient is it to change electricity? Take the usage of Weilai users during the Spring Festival this year as an example. From 65438+1October 13 to February 5, Weilai provided 1245095 power exchange service, including 372324 free power exchanges on expressways on the sixth day of the first month (65438+1October 27), and the number of power exchanges across the country and expressways. During the Spring Festival, 60% of Weilai users' electricity consumption comes from changing electricity.

Both Weilai's own investigation and the results of the third-party investigation in the industry show that from the initial stage of electric vehicles to now, the endurance &; The convenience of charging energy is the most important factor affecting the public to buy electric vehicles. Weilai's power changing mode just solved this pain point, and it is more convenient to change power than to refuel. Power exchange has also become an important part of Weilai's differentiated competition with other electric vehicle brands.

Shen Fei, senior vice president of Weilai Energy, believes that it is the great role of changing power stations for users to travel in Spring Festival travel rush and the users' love for changing power stations that further strengthens Weilai's confidence in increasing power stations.

"From 65438+1October 14 to 15, I drove to visit users in Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang and Dalian. In the northeast of MINUS 20 degrees, the experience of high-speed power exchange is very good, which is different from the first visit to northeast users at the end of 20 18. On the other hand, in the process of communicating with you, I also realized that the number of power stations in Northeast China needs to be increased several times in order to truly let users travel without worry. " On February 2 1 day, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, issued a document saying that it is necessary to further speed up the layout of power exchange stations, so that more users can experience more convenient power exchange services than refueling as soon as possible.

Li Bin told users through a post that the company decided to increase the number of power stations from 400 to 65,438+0,000 in 2023. This goal is basically equal to the total number of power stations in 202 1 and 2022. In the past two years, Weilai has built an average of 40-50 new power stations every month. However, due to the scattered distribution of users and the consideration of Weilai's own strategy, in actual experience, many users, especially those in third-and fourth-tier cities and users who run long distances across regions, still report that the power station is not enough. This time, Li Bin invited users to give feedback on the websites they want to lay out.

In the past three days, this post has accumulated more than 5,000 replies, most of which are car owners. Shen Fei's reply topped the list, with nearly 300 users leaving messages on the site selection of the power station.

Auto business review browsed almost all the replies, and the car owners' comments on the experience of power exchange were true, but the loudest voice was to increase the construction of power exchange station. They earnestly hope that Weilai can build a power exchange station near their city or residence.

As the president, Qin is in charge of energy supply business, and the actual person in charge is Shen Fei. "Roll up your sleeves and work hard for three years until you can't make any comments" is Qin's goal at the media communication meeting on February 6.

Roll up your sleeves and work hard for three years. This is the current development rhythm of Weilai.

Why should we speed up the construction of power exchange?

A Weilai ES6 owner in Wuxi, Jiangsu told auto business review: "The fact that Weilai can change electricity particularly appeals to me." He chose the battery rental mode to buy two years ago. "Changing electricity now is just like refueling, which is very convenient," he said.

Jiangyin, where he lives, has a population of about 654.38+200,000. It is a small city with four distinct seasons and no extreme cold current. The number of Weilai is around 100. There are five power stations in this town, three of which are in the urban area and two in the towns. "It would be nice to change more power stations," said the boss. "With the increase of ownership, the number of power stations here is definitely not enough."

This car owner rarely chooses to charge, although Weilai's car can be charged. "It's more convenient to change electricity," he said.

If Weilai's sales exceed Lexus' target, Lexus' sales last year were 6.5438+0.8 million, assuming Weilai's sales target this year is about 200,000. In contrast, if the original 400 new power stations are added, it will definitely not match the expected growth of sales this year, because the total number of new power stations in 2022 has reached 528, and the sales volume in 2022 is 6,543,800+0.2 million. Considering that affected by the epidemic last year, at least 528 new power stations will be built this year.

It seems more reasonable to increase the number of power stations from 400 to 1000. One part is to continue to optimize the existing site, and the other part is to fill the blank area.

How Weilai's power exchange experience is tied to Weilai's sales to some extent. Shen Fei believes that the battery capacity of the power station will eventually reach 1.5-3% of the vehicle ownership. The greater the number of vehicles, the more power stations and the denser the layout, and the better the power exchange experience for each user, forming a positive cycle.

How to lay out

This time, Weilai has added 1 1,000 power stations, of which about 600 are located in urban areas, focusing on third-and fourth-tier cities and counties that have a certain user base but have not changed power stations; There are about 400 high-speed power exchange stations, and Weilai's goal is to speed up the layout of the 9 vertical and 9 horizontal 19 urban agglomeration high-speed power exchange station network.

The layout of Weilai Expressway refers to the layout strategy of gas stations. By September 2022 15, there will be 4,400 * * * high-speed service areas. According to the cruising speed of 300 kilometers, the total mileage of China's expressways is about170,000 kilometers, and the national expressways need about 567 power stations.

At present, Weilai has a total of 348 power exchange stations in the national expressway, and with the addition of about 400 this year, the total number will reach about 750, which has exceeded the base of 567. Based on this calculation, the addition of 400 seats on the expressway this year will greatly improve the long-distance power exchange experience of Weilai owners and make it as convenient as a gas station.

How did Weilai arrange the power exchange station?

According to the communication meeting on February 6th, Shen Fei explained the process in detail.

First of all, according to the growth of the number of users, and then the construction of charging and replacing infrastructure, this is the first reference. "There are some third-and fourth-tier cities that are currently blank. In fact, they have 100 or more users. We have to fill these gaps, "Shen Fei said.

Second, continue to increase the construction of urban energy supplementary facilities. There are about 100 busy power stations in Shanghai, but the present situation is that the queuing phenomenon is also increasing. In this case, Weilai still needs to add charging and replacing power stations near this area. Adding some energy replenishment points near relatively dense power stations can alleviate the pressure of single station and prevent users from queuing to change electricity.

Third, whether they can make a profit depends on the layout of some blank areas, more from the perspective of serving users. "We may have taken some detours in the initial stage and given priority to building more service fees. In the following years, we still returned to the initial intention of serving users. The charging piles built by Weilai in recent years are basically in places where private car users have strong charging needs, or to serve private car users well. "

Weilai will open a wish list on the application on February 28, when Weilai owners can fill in the location of the power station they want to build. Weilai attaches importance to user needs, and will combine the local user base, and then make layout through the intelligent location of NIO Power Cloud, taking into account user wishes, power exchange experience and operational efficiency.

On the other hand, the difficulty of changing power stations lies in land and capacitance. The 1000 new power station to be built this year is a great challenge for Shen Fei's team. During the period of Spring Festival travel rush this year, Shen Fei's team has accepted a wave of Spring Festival travel rush peak challenges through high-speed free power exchange service, and the team has actually withstood this "service training": during the period of Spring Festival travel rush, Weilai Power Exchange Station provided users with more than 6,543.8+0.24 million power exchange services and more than 900,000 charging services. This "stress test" is not only a test of Weilai's hardware facilities, operational capabilities and user groups, but also points out the direction for the next optimization and investment.

New marketing methods

Weilai's power exchange has become a new marketing model, especially the high-speed free power exchange activities during the Spring Festival, which has increased Weilai's fans and gained a good reputation. In fact, many oil tanker owners wait longer for refueling than Weilai to change electricity.

"This is a very good marketing," a Shanghai Weilai ES6 owner told auto business review.

Many people question the heavy assets and predictable rate of return of Weilai power exchange service, especially the free power exchange service during the Spring Festival.

"We didn't spend huge sums of money on advertising, but saved this part of the marketing expenses. We would rather spend this money on users. " Shen Fei said. Qin also said at the time, "In the future, Weilai will have more and more user groups, and we will also provide free power exchange services for everyone. This fee is the money that others invest in two billboards. "

At present, when various car companies cut prices to promote sales, Weilai did not follow suit. Instead, they invest more and improve the user experience by increasing the number of power stations, thus enhancing the brand image.

In fact, the power exchange station has become a marketing contact of Weilai. Through this long-term contact, we will expand more opportunities to serve users, generate new business models, and ultimately add value to the brand. This is Weilai's logic.

Compared with the imminent price war between car companies, increasing the charging and replacing network can benefit both new and old users, and there will be no scene in which new users are happy for old users to defend their rights for a day or two, which is a continuous positive blessing to the brand image.

Reducing the price and accelerating the deployment of power stations also reflect the different ideas of smart electric vehicle competition. Price-cutting brands make consumers pay less through price incentives. Weilai improves the user experience by accelerating the deployment of power stations, one for subtraction, one for addition, one for short-term effect and one for long-term experience. Without Weilai, the competition in the automobile market will become more and more monotonous.

At the media communication meeting on February 6, Weilai exposed a set of statistics: 76% of Weilai charging piles serve non-Weilai brands, and the top two are BYD and Tesla, which sell the best new energy vehicles. This set of data shows that Weilai is not only investing in the energy supplement field for its own car owners, but also investing in infrastructure for the whole industry.

The vigorous development of new energy vehicles in China and even the whole world requires more enterprises to participate in infrastructure investment. Weilai's investment that doesn't care about short-term gains and losses is precisely the support of long-term values. You may not see immediate results in a short time, but once you reach the critical point of user experience, it will not only boost the development of new energy automobile industry, but also bring about the qualitative change of Weilai's own competitiveness and build a unique and solid moat.

This article was originally published by auto business review.

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This article is from auto business review, written by Yi Chehao, 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.