According to the data, there are about 67,000 taxis in Beijing at present, including 5,000 electric taxis. With the encouragement of the policy of "scrapping at maturity, purchasing with vehicle incentive indicators and updating other vehicles approved by the government", it is estimated that the scale of replacing taxis with electric vehicles will be about 10,000 each year. According to the Notice on Financial Incentive Policy for Updating Taxi to Pure Electric Vehicle issued by Beijing (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), the replaced vehicles are "compatible with charging and replacing batteries" in principle, and the addition of 10,000 electric taxis every year will bring great challenges to the existing power station network.
How many power stations are there in the whole city? Can the total amount of batteries that can be replaced meet the needs of taxis? After visiting a number of power exchange stations in Beijing, the reporter found that the preparation work to meet the demand for new electric taxis has begun, the power exchange enterprises are actively deploying more outlets, and the recruitment of personnel is also in the process of promotion.
■ The power exchange station is preparing for capacity expansion.
According to public information, up to now, BAIC New Energy has put in more than 12,000 electric taxis nationwide, and built a total of 140 power stations. Specific to Beijing, the number of power stations displayed on the official website of BAIC New Energy is 59, but during the actual visit, it was found that the locations of some power stations marked on the map of official website were not accurate. The staff of the power station told the reporter that if you want to inquire about the power station in the city, you can download an App called "Aodong Power Bar", which not only marks the exact location of the power station, but also shows the remaining battery quantity and queuing situation. On the software, the models currently supported for inquiry are BAIC EU220, EU260 and EU300. According to the requirements of the Notice, "the driving range of vehicles should not be less than 300 kilometers in principle", so after selecting the model of EU300, the total number of power exchange stations displayed is 31. If each power station is filled with 28 batteries, the number of full-load operations in one day is 288 (recycling). In addition, due to the fact that most of the replaced batteries have more residual electricity in actual calculation, the charging time is shortened. Therefore, the number of full-load operations in each power station can be counted as 300. In other words, at present, Beijing can provide EU300 with 9300 power exchanges. A taxi needs to change electricity twice a day, so the current power station can only serve 4650 electric taxis. If all the 10,000 electric taxis added this year adopt the power exchange mode, the number of power exchange stations is obviously insufficient.
However, the staff of the power station told reporters that the new power station is in the process of active layout, and it is expected to be officially opened in the near future once there is demand. According to a staff member of a power station in Chaoyang District, Beijing, "According to the actual situation, a power station only needs one staff member, but our station now has three or four employees, just to prepare for the upcoming expansion." Another staff member of a power station in Changping District also revealed the same information: "In the case of meeting the current operating needs of the power station, personnel are still being recruited."
■ Business model becomes the biggest problem.
"The power exchange is still in a special stage of development. Perhaps the power exchange station at this stage can’t meet the power exchange needs of a large number of taxis, but it has a process of development and construction." In an interview with the reporter of China Automotive News, Xu Haidong, assistant secretary general of China Automobile Industry Association, was not very worried about the battery supply of the power station. He said that with the increase of the number of electric taxis, the number of power stations will also increase, and the layout is expected to be gradually improved. The most noteworthy issue is how to find a mature business model and solve the profit problem of power stations.
According to Qin Si, deputy general manager of Beijing Aodong New Energy Investment Co., Ltd., the current power station change mainly relies on electricity charges for profit. On the premise that the power station uses a lot of electricity, it costs 0.8 yuan to use 1 kilowatt hour. According to the calculation of 5 kilometers driven by 1 kilowatt hour, the electricity fee is 0.16 yuan per kilometer, while the service fee is 0.35 yuan per kilometer driven by electric taxis. That is to say, every kilometer driven by electric taxis, the power station gains 0.19 yuan. If the mileage of each electric taxi reaches 200 kilometers each time, the gross profit of changing electricity for each electric taxi is 38 yuan.
Qin Si pointed out that the key to the profitability of power stations is the load rate. Under normal circumstances, to achieve profitability, the load rate needs to reach more than 65%. At present, the average load rate of power stations in Beijing is only 20% ~ 25%.
During the visit, the reporter also found that at present, power stations are generally "not enough to eat". In Qiushi Street, Chaoyang District, the reporter talked with the staff for about 40 minutes, during which no electric car came to exchange electricity. According to the staff, the current number of battery changes per day is only single digits, but according to him, in busy sites such as Bawangfen Station in Chaoyang District, the number of battery changes per day can exceed 20 times. However, according to Tan Si’s calculation, in order to achieve the 65% load rate required for profit, each power station needs to serve about 195 electric vehicles every day.
It is conceivable that once 10,000 electric taxis are added in Beijing this year, the problem of profitability is expected to be solved, but before the official operation, the power station operators need huge upfront capital investment. It is reported that at present, the equipment and construction cost of each power station is about 3 million yuan (excluding land costs), and it takes about 2 million yuan to buy spare batteries. According to the idea of Aodong New Energy, if the average service radius of the urban area is 2.78km, 100 power exchange stations will be built in Beijing, and the initial investment cost will need at least 500 million yuan.
"At present, the business model of the power exchange technology route is still immature. The comprehensive electrification of taxis in Beijing is just a useful exploration and practice. I hope that by trying first, it can provide new ideas for the development of the automobile industry." Xu Haidong said. Our reporter Shi Yunyun
China Auto News (2019-07-29 008 Edition)
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