Electric vehicles to completely replace fuel vehicles must cross the threshold of "mileage anxiety"

  Wang Zhiyuan, a trainee reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily

  In the feedback of new energy vehicle users, the reduction of vehicle cruising range is the "hardest hit area" of complaints, especially in low temperature in winter.

In addition, with the explosive growth of domestic new energy vehicle sales, the contradiction of "vehicle-to-pile ratio" has become more prominent, and it is necessary to continue to promote the construction of charging and swapping networks.

Photo courtesy of Vision China

  In May, the temperature in Beijing remained at around 20 degrees Celsius. Every time she went out, Meng Xue kept an eye on the power consumption of her SAIC Roewe Ei5.

  "When buying a car, the manufacturer advertises that the cruising range is 300 kilometers, and the salesperson said that it can drive at least 280 kilometers, but in reality, it can only drive up to 230 kilometers." She said that the problem of "power failure" is particularly obvious in winter, so it is not necessary to At 200 kilometers, she suddenly "turned off" halfway, causing her a lot of trouble.

  This is not uncommon.

It is understood that some electric vehicle owners have also experienced the dilemma of "driving 15 kilometers and dropping 30 kilometers".

A Chery EQ1 owner said that the actual battery life cannot reach the cruising range in the configuration table at all, about 30% off in summer and 5.5% off in winter.

  Among the 6 electric car owners interviewed by the reporter, the situation is relatively consistent: the actual cruising range of the vehicle is lower than the rated mileage, and it is also lower than the cruising range estimated by the sales staff.

In summer, the temperature is high, and the actual battery life of the vehicle is not significantly attenuated, with an average attenuation of 10-15 kilometers per 100 kilometers; in winter, the vehicle battery life declines severely. 4 car owners said that the actual battery life is only about half of the rated battery life.

  According to the user survey results jointly released by JD Power and Knowchedi, 40% of new energy vehicle owners and 27% of new energy potential customers have battery life anxiety.

The mileage of pure electric drive is lower than the officially announced cruising range, which is the main reason for the anxiety of battery life.

  The reporter learned that some companies said that the vehicle can reach a maximum battery life of 400 kilometers during publicity, but it cannot even reach 300 kilometers in daily driving.

Similar problems are common on various complaint platforms. A black cat complained about a WM Motor EX5-Z 400 Dynamic Edition owner who reported that the car’s cruising range is 400 kilometers, while the actual cruising range is only about 200 kilometers. The actual charging degree of the power grid is also seriously inconsistent.

  The "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumers Association in 2021" released by the China Consumers Association shows that with the gradual promotion of new energy vehicles and the continuous increase in the number of owners, related complaints are gradually increasing.

Among them, the shrinking cruising range is one of the main complaints of consumers, especially in the low temperature in winter.

  It is understood that new energy vehicle companies often use standards such as NEDC or CLTC to calibrate vehicle battery life on their promotional pages. However, due to differences in temperature, road conditions, and driving conditions, the actual battery life performance of vehicles is often quite different from that of car companies. It is basically impossible to drive to the rated cruising range.

  Electric vehicle "mileage false mark" is the main cause of anxiety

  Meng Xue recalled that the first time the Roewe Ei5 "turned off" happened in the summer of 2018.

  After work one day, Meng Xue found that the battery showed that she could still travel 50 kilometers. She felt that the way home was only 30 kilometers.

Because of the heat, the air conditioner in the car was always on, but seeing that the power dropped very fast, she quickly turned it off.

Meng Xue calculated the amount of electricity and drove in the direction of home in an orderly manner. On the road less than 10 kilometers away from home, the car suddenly "turned off".

In desperation, she could only call for a tow truck.

  Thinking that the actual cruising range is seriously inconsistent with the rated mileage, Meng Xue said that now she will check the power in advance when she goes out, and park the car at the charging pile near the destination to charge it to prevent it from "turning off" again.

  The reporter visited a number of new energy vehicle 4S stores in Beijing and learned that the vast majority of electric vehicles are currently calibrated for the NEDC comprehensive operating range.

However, an interviewed car owner said that although they can barely accept that the actual cruising range does not reach the official calibration mileage, if there is too much "power outage", it will become a bad thing, causing them to lose their trust in the manufacturer.

  In response to the common troubles of new energy vehicle users, each car content platform is also passing the actual endurance test in multiple scenarios to provide users with an objective reference.

  Not long ago, Knowing Chedi, China Automobile Research Institute and National Big Data Alliance for New Energy Vehicles released the "New Energy Vehicle Owners' Endurance Report". By comparing 22 cities in 7 major regions across the country (Northeast China, North China, Central China, South China, East China, Northwest China and Southwest China) 35 sample data (minimum sample size for a single vehicle per city is 10) to calculate the reliability of the average cruising range, the actual cruising range obtained can reach 83% of the NEDC on average, and it is proposed that temperature is the main factor affecting the reliability of the actual cruising range performance .

  The report believes that in May, the northern and southern regions were the least affected by temperature, and the average cruising range of vehicles reached the highest level in the year.

The high temperature in July will cause a slight decrease in the actual cruising range of the vehicle, while the low temperature in January will lead to a significant decrease in the cruising range.

There are also many people who believe that electric vehicles will experience battery degradation after driving for a long time, resulting in "the longer the mileage, the shorter the battery life", but the current sample data analysis does not support this view.

  Yang Hongsong, director of the Industry Development Department of General Technology China Automotive Research Institute Beijing Branch, said that the battery system of new energy vehicles has very strict requirements on the working environment temperature. Too high or too low ambient temperature will significantly affect the cruising range and battery life of the vehicle.

At present, battery liquid cooling technology is widely used in new energy passenger vehicles, which has a good effect on reducing the maximum temperature of the battery and maintaining temperature consistency.

  For single batteries, Yang Hongsong believes that the main factors affecting battery capacity decay are temperature, charge-discharge depth, charge-discharge rate, charge-off voltage and internal resistance changes.

The charge-discharge cycles of lithium-ion batteries will lead to battery capacity decay. Due to the existence of side reactions, the available active materials are gradually reduced, the performance is gradually degraded, and the capacity loss increases with the number of cycles.

Deep discharge will aggravate the decline of the power battery. It is recommended that the owner of the car should be charged with shallow discharge, charged as needed, and maintained regularly.

  Another focus of extended battery life

  The decline in the cruising range of new energy vehicles is testing the patience of every car owner.

In addition to battery life, problems such as unreasonable distribution of charging piles and long vehicle charging time also plague car owners.

  In 2021, domestic sales of new energy vehicles will grow explosively, and the contradiction of "vehicle-to-pile ratio" will become more prominent.

According to public data, by the end of 2021, there will be 7.84 million new energy vehicles and 2.617 million charging piles in the country, with a vehicle-to-pile ratio of 3:1.

According to the requirements of the charging pile construction task arranged by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, the "vehicle-to-pile ratio" will reach 2:1 by 2030, which also means that there is still a large gap in the domestic charging pile market.

  "Charging outside is as convenient as refueling, which is definitely not possible at present." Meng Xue found that only a small number of shopping malls in Beijing have installed charging piles in underground parking lots. Fast charging takes at least an hour, while slow charging has to wait. For three or four hours, it’s okay to go shopping without any urgency. Once you encounter a queue of charging piles, you can only “compromise in disguise”.

  Building more charging piles and providing better market services is an important part of solving the "range anxiety" of electric vehicle owners.

How to optimize the utilization rate of charging piles through reasonable management and maintenance; how to make charging piles compatible with electric vehicles of various brands through policy guidance and brand cooperation to achieve win-win cooperation, these are all issues on the table.

Only by making up for the current shortcoming of electric vehicle cruising range can we truly provide consumers with a good car experience and better promote the development of new energy vehicles.

  Analysts said that the reason why fuel vehicle owners do not have mileage anxiety is because gas stations are widely distributed and refueling is convenient.

In the same way, increasing the construction of public charging piles so that new energy vehicles can be conveniently and efficiently charged and replaced can also alleviate people's mileage anxiety to a certain extent.

  A salesperson of the Great Wall Euler 4S store said that with the popularity of charging piles, consumers' anxiety about cruising range is decreasing, and some consumers are more concerned about the type of battery, the intelligence of the vehicle system and the rationality of after-sales service. .

  In addition, electric vehicles that support the battery swap mode can greatly shorten the energy replenishment time of the operating vehicle, leaving more time to ensure the normal operation of the vehicle every day.

  In November 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", which mentioned "vigorously promote the construction of charging and swapping networks".

In October 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of New Energy Vehicle Battery Swap Mode Application", which included 11 cities including Beijing, Nanjing, and Wuhan in the pilot cities.

As two important energy supplement methods, charging and battery swapping will become an important energy supplement infrastructure for new energy vehicles, and jointly solve the "range anxiety" of new energy vehicles.

  Yang Hongsong said that if charging and replacing is convenient and fast enough, electric vehicles can meet the daily travel needs with a cruising range similar to that of similar models of traditional power vehicles.