Super fast charging “makes charging as fast as refueling”

In recent years, the state has successively introduced favorable policies for the construction of super fast charging, and new energy vehicle companies have accelerated their deployment of super fast charging. The combination of pure electric vehicles and super fast charging may become the mainstream travel form in the future.

01 Clear charging construction goals in many places

 At the beginning of 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other departments issued the "Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Service Guarantee Capacity of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure", clearly proposing that by 2025, the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone and key air pollution prevention and control areas will The coverage rate of fast charging stations in highway service areas shall not be less than 80%, and that in other areas shall not be less than 60%. Charging operating companies are also encouraged to gradually increase the proportion of fast charging piles through new construction, reconstruction, expansion, migration, etc.

 Driven by national policies, Guangzhou, Hainan, Shenzhen, Chongqing and other places have also launched relevant policies and measures to encourage the development of super fast charging infrastructure.

 In September 2022, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guangzhou Three-Year Action Plan to Accelerate the Construction of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure" (2022-2024) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which will create a "Supercharging City" ” was officially released as a policy point.  The "Plan" proposes that by 2024, Guangzhou will be basically built as a "overcharging capital". The service capacity of charging and swapping facilities in the city has reached approximately 4 million kilowatts, and approximately 1,000 super fast charging stations have been built.  During 2022-2024, approximately 1.2 million kilowatts of new charging and swapping service capacity will be added, and approximately 1,000 new super fast charging stations will be added, achieving a 1.5km radius coverage and reducing the time to find a station to less than 5 minutes.

 Hainan Province is the first province in China to propose a nationwide ban on the sale of fuel vehicles in 2030. In the process of realizing the overall goal of "Green and Smart Travel in New Hainan", it has also proposed a plan to build the world's first "Supercharging Island". In March this year, Hainan’s “Supercharge Island” construction plan was announced. It is proposed that by 2023, more than 100 super fast charging stations will be built within the service radius of a public super fast charging network of no less than 3 kilometers; by 2025, full coverage of highway service areas and towns will be achieved, and super fast charging stations will be built in Hainan. 400 super fast charging stations work together to build an "XFC extremely fast charging" island ecosystem.

 At the end of 2022, Shenzhen issued the "Shenzhen Special Plan for New Energy Vehicle Charging Facilities", which included charging infrastructure in the special plan and proposed to accelerate the construction of new energy vehicle charging facilities that are "built to the fullest, balanced and reasonable, safe and convenient, and intelligent and open". Power exchange facility system. In June this year, Shenzhen’s construction of a “supercharging city” was officially launched.  The "Shenzhen Special Plan for Supercharging Facilities for New Energy Vehicles" states that the goal is to build 300 super-fast charging stations by 2025, and the "supercharging/refueling" ratio will be the first in China to reach 1:1.

 Chongqing, as the center of the automobile industry in southwest China, is also actively developing a high-power, high-voltage and super-fast charging service network ahead of schedule. According to the "Chongqing Action Plan to Promote Intelligent Networked New Energy Vehicle Infrastructure Construction and Services (2022-2025)", more than 240,000 charging piles will be built in 2025. The principle of station radius for ultra-fast charging networks and battery swapping networks It does not exceed 5 kilometers, and the expressway service area is fully covered by charging piles, of which the coverage rate of super fast charging piles exceeds 20%.

02 A hundred schools of thought contend in the ultra-fast charging industry chain

 While many places across the country have introduced relevant policies to support the construction of overcharging stations, companies have also frequently made efforts to lay out overcharging construction.

 At present, charging piles are divided into slow charging, fast charging and super fast charging according to different charging speeds. Slow charging mainly uses AC charging, while fast charging and super fast charging are high-voltage fast charging methods based on DC charging technology. Fast charging generally uses natural cooling for heat dissipation, and the charging power of the terminal is usually less than or equal to 250 kilowatts. For super fast charging, it generally refers to a charging speed as fast as refueling, that is, a charging power of more than 480 kilowatts.

 In October this year, Huawei's fully liquid-cooled supercharging stations were officially launched in many places along the southern Sichuan-Tibet line and the Litang and Aden highways. Huawei's fully liquid-cooled supercharger has a maximum charging power of 600 kilowatts and a maximum current of 600 amps, and can match all models in the 200-1000 volt charging range. At the recent Smart World S7 and Huawei full-scenario press conference, Yu Chengdong, Huawei’s managing director and chairman of Smart Car Solutions BU, said that by the end of 2024, Huawei will deploy more than 100,000 fully liquid-cooled superchargers across the country.

 With super charging piles, new energy vehicles that can support super charging are also needed. Zhang Zhen, Shenzhen regional trainer of Xiaopeng Motors, said that charging power is directly related to charging speed, and charging power is related to charging current and system voltage. An increase in current will increase the requirements for thermal management of the battery itself, so currently the maximum current that the vehicle can withstand is limited. Most car companies adopt a solution of increasing the charging voltage to increase the charging speed, which is what the industry calls 800 volt high voltage. Fast charging platform.

 At present, BYD, Xpeng, GAC Aian, Geely Krypton, Ideal, BAIC Jihu and other car companies have deployed high-voltage platform models. Among them, Xpeng G9 and G6 are two models equipped with 800-volt high-voltage fast charging platforms. The equipped silicon carbide control module can speed up the heat dissipation efficiency of the vehicle's electronic control system, thereby ensuring the stability and safety of vehicle performance during high-power charging.

 In addition to high-voltage platforms, new energy vehicles also need to be equipped with super fast-charging batteries. At present, many companies such as CATL and Juwan Technology Research have developed and put into production super fast-charging batteries.

03 It will take time to achieve super fast charging

 With technological breakthroughs and the implementation of multiple application scenarios, super fast charging will greatly satisfy the charging experience of new energy vehicle users.

 According to Liu Kai, deputy director of the technical department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and director of the China Charging Alliance, the charging scenarios for super fast charging are mainly divided into old residential areas in cities that do not have the conditions for parking space renovation, and highways that require high charging efficiency. As well as rental, logistics and other operational vehicles along the route that are highly sensitive to time costs.

 However, some relevant people in the industry pointed out that although the charging speed of super fast charging is even better and is very suitable for application scenarios such as highways, the increase in new energy vehicles now comes more from individual users, especially private users in some cities. In other words, the charging frequency required for vehicles is not high, and the need for supercharging is even lower.

 Liu Kai believes that there is currently no clear definition of super fast charging. Super fast charging defined by the charging alliance is a technology that charges vehicles with a charging power of more than 300-350 kilowatts per gun. From this perspective, there are currently very few charging facilities on the market and they are still in the demonstration and exploration stage. The main reason is that vehicles and batteries that can accept such high charging power have not yet been applied in large-scale mass production.

 Ji Xuehong, director of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, also believes that the super-fast charging market has not yet formed a scale, there are not many models on sale, and the capital investment in battery research and development, super-charging pile construction and other aspects does not match the later returns.