Legalization of four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles is speeded up

2017 is on schedule, but the New Year's atmosphere has not infected the entire four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle industry. On the afternoon of December 27, 2016, the National Standards Committee convened the second meeting of the four-wheeled low-speed electric vehicle standard working group. At the meeting, the parties reached agreement on five relevant standard opinions, but there are still four standards. The opinions have not been unified. Some media reported that the third meeting of the four-wheeled low-speed electric vehicle standard working group was held on December 30, 2016, and several standards to be discussed at the second meeting were forcibly passed. For a time these news surprised the companies that had expected the four-wheeled low-speed electric vehicles to be legalized as soon as possible.

Four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles or classified as passenger cars

The second meeting held previously defined the four-wheeled low-speed electric vehicle, which is “four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle using the power battery as the sole source of energy”, which means that the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle is very likely to be returned. Enter the category of passenger cars.

At present, there is always controversy in the industry about whether four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles should belong to the passenger vehicle category. The names given to them at different conferences have also been changing: four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles were used in April 2016. The name is “four-wheel low-speed electric passenger car”, which was defined as “low-speed electric vehicle” in the “Reply to the 2nd recommendation of the Fourth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress” on October 13, 2016, in 2016. On November 18th, the first meeting of the standard working group was confirmed as “four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle”, and at the second meeting just one month later, the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle was re-divided into within the scope of "cars".

This change has made the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle industry suffer. Once the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle is planned to be in the passenger car range, its industry standard level will be greatly improved, but in terms of current industry conditions, most of the industry Companies will not be able to meet the new standards. According to Chen Quanshi, director of the China Automotive Engineering Society and deputy director of the National Automobile Standardization Electric Vehicle Professional Committee, the management of the new national standard for low-speed electric vehicles has undergone major changes. There are five requirements for qualification, standards, licenses, driver's licenses and insurance on the road. The management aspect will be the same as the "ordinary passenger car". This news further aggravated the degree of concern about the new standards. Some companies believe that the new standards should not be "one size fits all", and that low-speed electric vehicles should be directly classified into passenger vehicles, which may limit the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles in disguise development of.

The new standard is more inclined to use lithium batteries as a power source

It is understood that at the second meeting, for the power source of low-speed four-wheel electric vehicles, standard drafting units and experts are more inclined to lithium batteries, but from the actual market situation, low-speed four-wheel electric vehicle manufacturers are obviously more favored. Lead storage battery. Although this standard failed to pass at the meeting and involved the formulation of new standards, many companies are still worried and some media reported that the standard was held at the third meeting held on December 30, 2016 forced to pass.

At present, more than 90% of four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles use lead batteries as the power source. Lead batteries have cost advantages, are technically mature and stable, are not difficult to carry, and are relatively mature and safe in the recycling system. In comparison, lithium batteries are more expensive, and for safety reasons, low-speed electric vehicles with lithium batteries need to be equipped with a battery management system, which in turn increases the production cost of low-speed electric vehicles. Before the industrial chain matures, the use of lithium batteries for low-speed electric vehicles does not have a price advantage. In addition, the recovery system of lithium batteries has not yet been established, and there are still many difficulties in transportation safety and secondary utilization in the recycling process.

In addition, if the lithium battery is forcibly included in the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle power battery route, it also involves the qualification of lithium battery companies. Due to the subsidy policy, high-speed electric vehicles will choose to cooperate with power battery companies entering the battery enterprise catalog. The quality of power batteries will be guaranteed, while low-speed electric vehicles do not involve state subsidies and local subsidies. In terms of power battery selection, there is a large degree of freedom. Some companies choose low-cost power lithium batteries in order to save costs. These batteries are often low-end products that have been eliminated from the high-speed electric vehicle power lithium battery market. Some batteries are even processed from 3C battery products. Some insiders believe that blindly forcing the battery technology route without following the rules of market development will inevitably lead to the emergence of various industry problems and cause market chaos.

In addition to the power battery technology route, manufacturers and standards-setting organizations have not reached agreement on collision standards, body size standards, and quality standards. Whether these standards can become part of the new standards will directly affect the technical development route of the entire industry. It also involves the survival of most companies.

Although the legalization of four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles has been put on the agenda, this process has made the company extremely worried. Previously, the country's development of the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle industry has identified a guiding route of “regulating a batch, upgrading a batch, and eliminating a batch”. Some insiders analyzed that the content of the new standard and this route and the previously issued the relevant norms and policies are contradictory.

The development of the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle industry is in urgent need of standardization and standardization, but the formulation of relevant standards needs to be based on the actual situation of market development, especially in terms of battery technology route, body size and related safety standards. The average technical level and the actual needs of the users, once the new standard is out of the actual situation, the four-wheel low-speed electric vehicle manufacturing industry will be directly frustrated, and its million-selling market will also fluctuate, and the final impact will be the needs of people's livelihood and development.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.