Lithium battery of electric bicycle ignites the war of "changing power mode"

The new national standard and the new compulsory 3C certification regulations will be officially implemented on April 15. During the transition period of the new regulations, the "storm" of replacing lithium batteries in the field of electric bicycles has already blown up, and in order to further seize the electric bicycle market, lithium battery enterprises have played "new tricks".

Hi-Tech Lithium Battery has noticed that lithium battery enterprises, including Xingheng Power Supply, Far East Foster, Zhongtianhong Lithium Industry and Hongqiao Group, have begun to lay out the power exchange mode in the electric bicycle market, and achieved the breakthrough of users' endurance pain under the new national standard through the closed-loop system of lithium battery+intelligent power exchange system+socket.

Statistics show that at present, the domestic electric bicycle market scale exceeds 200 million, and it shows an annual growth trend of more than 30 million. According to the average power consumption of a car of 0.6 kWh, 30 million * 0.6 kWh = 18 GWh. The rise of power exchange mode will also drive the growth of lithium battery, a sub-industrial chain.

In fact, the "power exchange outlet" has touched the keen sense of smell of capital. In March of this year, Easy Car Power Exchange, a new energy two-wheeled vehicle travel service provider, announced the completion of several hundred million yuan Series B financing led by Tencent and Caive Energy Fund. In addition to easy riding and power exchange, many two-wheeled vehicle power exchange service providers, including e-exchange and Hello-exchange, have also received large amounts of financing.

With the maturity of the business model of electric bicycle replacement, lithium batteries will be put into use according to the market demand ratio of 1: 1.5, which will also drive the compound growth of lithium battery demand in this field.

Power exchange mode "war" ignited

At present, lithium battery enterprises are taking advantage of their outstanding advantages in the field of electric bicycles, such as market precipitation, technical advantages, business model, resource strength and after-sales service, to open the road of "changing batteries".

As the main drafting unit of "Technical Requirements for Lithium-ion Battery Switchgear for Electric Bicycles", Xingheng Power independently developed an intelligent switch system, which realized seamless intelligent docking from battery-switch cabinet to vehicle, and users only need to scan the code to replace the battery.

The person in charge of Xingheng Power Supply said that the new mode of intelligent power exchange introduced by the company allows users to obtain electricity from the whole network in only 30 seconds. Xingheng focuses on the high-end application market of lithium batteries for electric vehicles, and is also positioned at the high end of the field of electric bicycles. At present, the company has accumulated 8 million sets of lithium batteries for electric bicycles around the world.

In April, in order to solve the problem of electric vehicle replacement under the new national standard, Far East Foster signed a framework cooperation agreement with Guangzhou Motorcycle Technology, and Far East Foster will provide "lithium battery smart energy system" for motorcycle technology.

Cai Dong, general manager of Far East Foster, said that after establishing a good customer reputation in the field of passenger cars, the company is exploring the electric bicycle market with more potential, which is no less than a big cake of electric vehicles for cylindrical battery enterprises, especially in the context of comprehensively promoting lithium batteries to replace lead acid in the new national standard.

Zhongtianhong Lithium Industry, a service provider specializing in power battery recycling, has established an innovative business model in the recycling field by exploring and breaking through the intelligent disassembly technology of power batteries and applying the disassembled power batteries to sub-sectors such as electric bicycles and small energy storage.

Chen, general manager of Zhongtianhong Lithium Industry, said that as long as the technology is properly handled and the business model is feasible, retired power batteries can be used in many fields such as small energy storage, electric bicycles/motorcycles, low-speed vehicles and street lamps. In line with the national policy of cascade utilization of power batteries, enterprises can also achieve better economic benefits.

In addition, Hongqiao Group also announced in February last year (12) that it planned to set up a holding company to co-ordinate the shared battery operation. The shared battery operation business plan was first launched in the field of electric bicycle operation vehicles, including the development of unified standard lithium batteries, safe and convenient switch cabinet layout, App, and a business model combining direct operation and franchise.

Judging from the layout of many lithium battery enterprises, the "battery-changing mode" of the lithium battery market for electric bicycles has ignited a war.

Tuyere and bottleneck

Undoubtedly, with the formal implementation of the new national standard for electric bicycles, the market demand for lithium batteries will surely usher in a geometric growth trend in the process of replacing lead-acid batteries. "Power exchange mode" will also become a new market outlet in the field of electric bicycles.

Unlike electric vehicles, electric bicycles have relatively low technical requirements for power exchange, and have more market-oriented cost requirements and network laying requirements. The corresponding terminal markets include express delivery and take-away. It can make this model quickly land under the market demand and form a closed-loop business.

At the same time, the bottlenecks are: First, the growth space of application scenarios is limited. From the perspective of terminal application, due to the high cost of electricity, the electricity exchange mode charges 5 yuan/day or monthly as usual, which is beyond the tolerance of individual users, so the market space is limited to take-away distribution and small-area express delivery market. According to the market capacity of 5 million vehicles, the demand space for lithium batteries in the field of power exchange in the next two years is about 4.5GWh.

The second is safety regulations. Because the electric bicycle market is sensitive to cost, lithium batteries are constantly switched between disassembly, use and discharge, replacement and charging, which not only puts higher demands on the battery itself, but also puts higher demands on the safety design of charging cabinet, which still needs the joint attention and further improvement of national standards and related enterprises.

Third, the operator's profit is meager. Some operators have calculated an account like this. A battery pack consumes about 2 degrees of electricity every day, and the daily electricity fee is 1.7 yuan; The production cost of each battery is at least above 800 yuan, the service life is about 500 times, and the cost of each use is about 1.6 yuan; Coupled with the cost of warehousing, logistics, and hiring people to put batteries, according to the current charging target of 5 yuan per day, it is at most meager.

Fourth, the deposit is high and the fees are high. At present, the terminal needs to pay a deposit ranging from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan to use the power exchange service. Different power exchange operators have different outlets and channels. If it is convenient, it means that users may have to register more than two operators, and such a deposit threshold is undoubtedly too high. At the same time, users are also complaining about the high price of the power exchange mode.

It is foreseeable that once the business model cannot be established, the power exchange model will also die.