Sinopec's "Elephant Turn" Layout for Power Exchange

On April 15, China Petrochemical signed strategic cooperation agreements with Aodong New Energy and Weilai Automobile respectively to promote resource sharing and mutual benefit. It is understood that Aodong is mainly engaged in the business of replacing electricity with electricity for new energy vehicles. Weilai is a new force in building cars and also operates the business of replacing electricity. On the same day, China Petrochemical announced that it plans to charge and replace 5,000 power stations by 2025, which will provide a strong guarantee for the development of electric vehicles in China. This shows that China Petrochemical will speed up the layout of power exchange business, which is conducive to improving the infrastructure of new energy vehicles and innovating business models. But at the same time, oil companies entering the power exchange industry will intensify the already fierce industry competition.

Complementary advantages of oil-electricity interaction

It is understood that China Petrochemical will explore and promote full-scenario business application models such as smart charging with Aodong, and carry out pragmatic cooperation in R&D, construction, promotion and application related to charging and replacing electric vehicles; In addition to the layout of charging and replacing electricity, China Petrochemical and Weilai will also cooperate in new materials and intelligent electric vehicles, battery rental service (BaaS), vehicle procurement and leisure consumption scene construction.

Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of China Petrochemical Company, said that the company has accelerated the transformation to a comprehensive energy service provider of "oil, gas, hydrogen and electricity", and plans to charge and replace 5,000 power stations by 2025, so as to consolidate its leading position in the transportation energy market. Some insiders believe that cars in China are rapidly transforming into electric vehicles, and the proportion of electric vehicles will increase year by year, while the proportion of fuel vehicles will decrease. For China Petrochemical, it is an important way to ensure revenue by increasing the electricity exchange business at gas stations.

At present, China Petrochemical has more than 30,000 gas stations in China, forming a superior energy supply service network. Ren Wanfu believes: "The advantages of oil companies in charging and replacing electricity are mainly reflected in the advantages of outlets. By means of reconstruction and expansion, the difficulty of land use approval and capital investment can be reduced. At the same time, fixed outlets also save the trouble of car owners rushing around looking for charging and replacing power stations. "

On that day, Ying Chao Station of China Petrochemical Company, the world's first fully intelligent power exchange station jointly built by China Petrochemical Company and Weilai Company, was officially put into operation. According to the person in charge of Weilai, Ying Chao Power Station adopts the second generation power station power exchange technology independently developed by Weilai. The storage of 13 battery can provide one-day power exchange service for 3 12 vehicles, and the single power exchange time is 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

Transformation pressure promotes cooperation.

The data shows that in 2020, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China will be 1.366 million and 1.367 million respectively, up by 7.5% and 1.9% year-on-year, respectively, with both production and sales reaching record highs. According to the forecast of China Automobile Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 1.8 million in 2002/year.

In the era of fuel vehicles, gas stations all over the country were once considered as the best business model, but with the increasing popularity of new energy vehicles, the energy supply model has also changed. Regarding the trend of accelerating the transformation of oil companies, Dong Xiucheng thinks: "China Petrochemical is a traditional energy enterprise, and the whole industrial chain from exploration and development, refining to oil product sales is very mature. But now it is a great challenge for enterprises to make revolutionary changes in the industrial chain. At the same time, for the new business after transformation, such as changing electricity, charging, hydrogenation and so on. The foundation is still relatively weak, and it is necessary to find cooperation with enterprises with strength and advantages. "

Dong Xiucheng further said: "With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, after the market share of fuel vehicles becomes less and less in the future, the refueling function will gradually shrink, but the facilities of gas stations can be used. Power exchange, charging and hydrogenation must go hand in hand in the transformation and make good use of existing facilities. This is the biggest advantage of China Petrochemical. "

The business model of power exchange needs to be explored.

According to the statistics of China Charging Union, as of March, 20021year, there were 6 13 power stations in China, including 307 in Aodong and 92 in Weilai1year. It is understood that both companies are engaged in power exchange business. Therefore, it can be predicted that the cooperation between China Petrochemical, Aodong and Weilai in the field of power exchange will be promising.

In recent years, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China, the policy has gradually tilted towards the field of power exchange. In April 2020, the Notice on Adjusting and Perfecting the Subsidy Policy for New Energy Vehicles jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance mentioned that the pre-subsidy price of new energy passenger cars that enjoy policy subsidies from 2020 must be below 300,000 yuan (including 300,000 yuan), but vehicles that support power exchange are not subject to this regulation; In June, 2020, the State Council issued "New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (202 1-2035)", proposing that it will vigorously promote the construction of charging and replacing networks and encourage the application of alternative modes.

Li Bin, CEO of Weilai, said that the next step of the company is to lay out Weilai Power Station in China Petrochemical Gas Station in Beijing-Shanghai, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. Shen Fei, vice president of Weilai, also introduced that Weilai will deploy 299 second-generation power stations nationwide this year, achieving the deployment goal of a total of 500 power stations.

It is understood that the high investment cost and long payback time of power station are one of the difficulties faced by this model. According to some data, the current investment in a single power station exceeds 3 million yuan. If the capacity is increased, the cost will increase, and the cost will also increase in downtown areas, making it more difficult for power stations to make profits. For this cross-border cooperation, the industry believes that it will alleviate the problems of site selection and land acquisition faced by the construction of power exchange stations, reduce the construction and operation costs, and realize complementary advantages.

In addition, Ren Wanfu also said that the risk of oil companies laying out the exchange is mainly to face market competition, and at the same time, they still need to constantly explore business models.