Recently, a SuperX colleague sent me a photo while he was out, revealing a new service available at the highway service area. At first glance, I thought it was a delivery robot, but it turned out to be a robot specifically designed for charging electric vehicles.

All one needs to do is scan a code to place an order and fill in their vehicle’s license plate and parking space information, and the mobile car charger will drive up to the vehicle, eliminating the need to search for charging stations.
Moreover, its charging speed is not inferior to that of a charging station, with 30kWh of power being fully charged in just 20 minutes.

In recent years, the popularity of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has surged, with more individuals opting for them in public transportation.However, However, NEV owners often face challenges in finding available charging stations, especially during peak periods.
To address this , the industry has explored various solutions. One approach is battery swapping stations, but their high technical and upfront costs limit their use to specific brands.

Another approach is mobile car chargers or “car power banks.” One type, designed for on-board use, similar to portable phone chargers,has numerous drawbacks.For instance, a British startup’s home-use model offers only 8kWh capacity, costs around 49 pounds per month to rent. Worse still, charging this power bank requires the use of a charging station, adding cost and inconvenience. Given these factors, few car owners are willing to adopt this solution, let alone market it widely.

Another type, focuses on assisting charging stations, offering greater reliability and thus gaining market favor. With the rise of this field, numerous related companies have emerged, and even technology companies specializing in autonomous driving have begun to dabble in this area. Huawei, for instance, has already made public its patent for a car battery pack.

Currently, car battery packs on the market can be broadly categorized into two types. The first is semi-automatic, requiring manual operation or remote control. The second is more intelligent, utilizing autonomous driving technology to automatically sense and identify the environment, eliminating the need for human intervention.

Some companies have innovated by designing battery packs with separable batteries and charging heads, allowing a single charging head to be paired with multiple batteries, thus reducing costs. However, current car battery packs on the market have not yet achieved full automation, and the process of inserting and removing the charging cable still requires manual operation.

As for the cost aspect, a 70 kWh car battery pack can charge 2-3 vehicles simultaneously, priced at approximately 100,000 yuan. In parking lots, car battery packs charge the same price as charging stations, with a service fee of seven cents per kilowatt-hour. Based on daily operational data, each car battery pack can sell 250-300 kWh of electricity per day, earning approximately 200 yuan. It is estimated that the cost of the car battery pack can be recovered within two years.

All in all, considering the current development speed of new energy vehicles and the overall charging market, there is still considerable room for the growth of the car battery pack market.
However, compared to various battery swapping and charging solutions, we still hope that the battery itself can become more robust and reliable, as this is truly the ultimate solution to address range anxiety.