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Has the era of electric vehicles arrived? The core competitiveness of this competition is very clear, and there is not much we can do!

Time：

2023-03-21 14:49

The electric vehicle market is becoming increasingly white-hot. On the one hand, continuous technological progress has created the feasibility of the future development of electric vehicles. On the other hand, electric vehicles can alleviate many economic pressures for people, and have a crucial impact on energy conservation and environmental development. However, electric vehicle technology is still developing, and although there have been some achievements, there is still a long way to go for the era of electric vehicles for all.
On the surface, an electric vehicle is simply changing the engine and gearbox of a fuel fueled vehicle to batteries and motors. It used to consume fuel, but now it uses electricity. However, this change has changed the transformation of automotive products and the future automotive industry chain, and the most crucial issue is the issue of core competitiveness.
Changes in core automotive components
After excluding the symbol and brand value of a car, the most important thing to look for is power and design. In terms of power, 60% of the most important determinants of fuel based automotive products are reflected in the engine and gearbox. For expensive automotive products, it often means a more robust powertrain, which inevitably requires more expensive powertrain costs. In electric vehicles, electric motors can achieve high performance in the traditional sense on vehicles facing the general public, while taking into account high efficiency. This means that it is difficult to have a significant difference in the technology of electric vehicles.
Vehicle products will be redefined
Both of the three major components of fuel powered vehicles: engine, gearbox, and chassis will disappear from electric vehicles, while there are hundreds of suppliers serving both engines and gearboxes, which means that these suppliers will either undergo transformation to adapt to vehicle changes or shift to new fields of exploration. At the exploratory stage, a significant portion of the supply chain for electric vehicles is composed of new battery and motor suppliers. More importantly, as the battery will become the most important component of the entire vehicle, it will also occupy the highest cost of the entire vehicle (this is the case at this stage), so the value of the entire vehicle product will now increase. At the same time, compared to the engine technology firmly controlled by previous major automotive companies, battery technology is controlled by battery manufacturers, and automotive companies generally lack battery technology capabilities. This is why batteries, as the most core components, can hardly become a moat for the core competitiveness of major automotive enterprises in a short period of time. They need to be subject to battery suppliers, and major automotive enterprises often use the same battery. In this case, the profitability of automotive enterprises is declining.
And for this kind of situation, the major automotive companies are also expected. In the face of diminishing product differentiation and declining profitability, it is ultimately a change in core components. In the face of traditional power system values that cannot be changed much, it is even more necessary to find new value breakthroughs.
At this stage, attention needs to be paid to issues such as battery life and charging
Currently, electric vehicles still have a lower range than fuel vehicles. Although there are already some models on the market with a range of 600km+, on the one hand, the price is very high, and on the other hand, the usage of the battery needs to be tested in real combat. In this regard, Weilai is worth learning from. In terms of batteries, it has achieved a dual system of charging and replacing, and provides a very excellent charging and replacing service system.
A major feature of Weilai is that the entire series of products support battery replacement, which means that the battery pack of each Weilai vehicle can be replaced repeatedly, effectively solving the problem of battery usage loss. The popular point is that the future car batteries may be small pieces, and after detecting faulty batteries, they can be directly replaced.
Promote the uniqueness of the brand and form unique competitiveness
At the present stage, the only electric vehicles that have unique characteristics are Tesla and Weilai, which have different core competitiveness. Tesla's competitiveness is highlighted in its intelligent driving technology and its three electric technology. In terms of battery management systems, Tesla is undoubtedly the leader. It is a pure technical activity to coordinate batteries (battery packs) that do not have completely consistent chemical characteristics. In this regard, Tesla's battery monitoring and protection is very perfect, Both charging and discharging have perfect protection mechanisms, and Tesla's foresight in battery management also gives it advantages over other brands in super charging stations.
Weilai Automobile also adopts three electric technologies. Weilai has upgraded its battery pack of the same size twice in three years, from 70kWh to 84kWh, and then to CTP technology, achieving 100kWh. The capacity density has been improved, helping to continuously upgrade the hardware and mileage of existing models; In terms of electrical machinery, Weilai produces its own permanent magnet synchronous motor and induction motor. Both the ES6 and the new ES8 use its own technical combination of electrical machinery, achieving high efficiency and performance, demonstrating the maturity of its technology. In terms of software, NIO OS includes software capabilities such as NIO Pilot, FOTA, and intelligent cockpit, which greatly improves the user experience.
Write at the end:
Seeing this, I believe everyone has their own judgment on the core competition of electric vehicles. However, neither the pioneers nor the pursuers can be considered as winners at this stage. After all, in a race, crossing the finish line is the most important thing. Ultimately, it is up to consumers to judge and recognize. After all, the market is always changing, and who can take the crown in this electric car race remains to be seen.