Dr. Wu Jun, a renowned computer scientist in Silicon Valley, and Lei Hong, founder of the Silicon Valley High tech Innovation Association, personally led an inspection team to explore the CES exhibition, gain insights into the industry trends behind the exhibition, and explore investment opportunities. During this period, Dr. Wu Jun also visited Changya Technology's booth at CES to experience its latest technological achievements in the field of portable mobile energy storage.

The staff of Changya Technology introduced Dr. Wu Jun to the key products exhibited this time, as well as the integration of advanced research and development technology. Dr. Wu Jun learned that Changya Technology's technology can achieve intelligent functions such as fast charging, low battery warning, timed charging and discharging, and can expand capacitance while being lightweight.

According to data from iiMedia Research, the market size of China's mobile energy storage industry reached 9.52 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected to exceed 18.02 billion yuan in 2022. With the continuous increase in demand, it is expected that the portable energy storage market will add 24.14 million units in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 49% from 2021 to 2025; The newly installed capacity can reach about 16.9 GWh, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 57%; The market space reaches 55.1 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 49%.

It can be said that the mobile energy storage industry holds great development prospects. With the continuous expansion of the market size, users have put forward new requirements for products, such as modularity and intelligence

On the eve of the 2023 CES exhibition, Chiu Juntao, CEO of Changya Technology, had a conversation with COO Shi Zhenyu and 36Kr. In response to new consumer demands and future development trends in the mobile energy storage industry, Changya Technology presented its new thinking on product upgrades and iterations, as well as responding to more intense competition in the future.

Continuously innovating at the application level

In recent years, with the sharp increase in outdoor electricity demand, coupled with the factors of energy crisis, 'electricity anxiety' has driven the outbreak of the segmented track of portable mobile energy storage in the energy storage industry. According to research data from GGII, the global shipment scale of portable energy storage products was 2.9 million units in 2021. There is still significant growth potential in the market in the next four years, and the global shipment of portable energy storage products is expected to reach 19 million units by 2025.

The explosion of the portable mobile energy storage market is due to the increasingly popular camping trend worldwide. The prevalence of outdoor culture has made Europe and America the main market for portable energy storage products. In the past two years, there has also been a camping craze in China, which has driven consumer demand for portable energy storage products.

Secondly, in some disaster prone and remote areas, due to unstable electricity, there is a rigid demand for backup and emergency power sources, which is also an important market for portable energy storage in the future.

This is evident in the enthusiasm exhibited by capital.

In November 2022, consumer grade household energy storage brand Changya Technology received tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, which was jointly invested by Blue Microelectronics, Lihe Science and Technology Innovation Venture Capital, Rice Venture Capital, and Xinghe Holdings Group. The funds will mainly be used for team building, technology research and development, and expanding overseas markets.

Previously, Changya Technology had completed tens of millions of angel round financing, making it a hot emerging company in the energy storage field.

Earlier, the IPO of Huabao New Energy Growth Enterprise Board, which also focuses on the portable energy storage market, was approved for registration and issuance. According to its prospectus, Huabao New Energy's sales of portable energy storage products reached 1.835 billion yuan in 2021, nearly 10 times higher than the 250 million yuan in 2019.

At present, the entire field of portable mobile energy storage has entered a mature stage from the introduction period. Most portable energy storage products on the market are mainly functional, and the differences between products are further reduced. Ergonomic design considerations and user experience are relatively lacking. How to enhance user identification in the design and experience stages has become one of the key competitive points for players in the energy storage field.

Shi Zhenyu, COO of Changya Technology, showcased Changya Technology's innovation in product experience with two newly launched entry-level products as examples.

Firstly, in order to make the product smaller, lighter, and have higher capacity, Changya Technology has adopted a square battery and paired it with more advanced inverters to make the charging speed faster.

Secondly, the current entry-level mobile energy storage products on the market combine multiple interfaces such as USB, in car charging, and solar input. The design blindly pursues large and comprehensive, but ignores the actual needs of users in use. Some users may not have access to so many types of interfaces, and instead may have a greater demand for a certain type of interface. Based on this, Changya Technology has innovatively provided users with more options to replace output interfaces according to actual needs.

At the input end, Changya Technology has formed a certain technical barrier. Shi Zhenyu gave an example that although mobile energy storage products have low battery power, products on the market generally require several hours of charging time. Based on Changya Technology's new technology of super fast charging, it can achieve fast charging function. At the output end, Changya Technology also tries to increase the flexibility setting as much as possible. For example, the construction of sockets varies in different countries. In order to meet the needs of different users, Changya Technology has strengthened the global compatibility of PCS.

In addition, the appearance design of entry-level products is too monotonous, mainly in traditional black and gray. Considering that the majority of the audience for low-power energy storage devices is young people, Changya Technology has also made some new attempts in terms of appearance design. For example, the design of product IDs is more youthful, minimalist, and the colors are more diverse.

At present, Changya Technology's products are mainly sold overseas, with main markets including Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea.

Intelligent support enhances user experience

Of course, entry-level products are mainly aimed at technology to benefit more users. Changya Technology's key focus is still on high-end product lines.

Therefore, at this year's CES exhibition, Changya Technology will bring two high-end line products, ACENEW NEUTRON 1200 and NEUTRON 3600.

Among them, the power of NEUTRON 1200 is 1500W, with a 1.2kWh battery and a total weight of only 12.5KG. Supports AC fast charging of 80% within 1 hour. Supports 100W bidirectional fast charging for PD and 15W wireless charging.

Changya Technology CEO Qiu Juntao told 36Kr that in terms of hardware, Changya Technology's product strength is mainly reflected in its design with distinct brand characteristics. Compared with similar products, under the same capacity and power, Changya Technology's products have been optimized in both volume and weight dimensions.

The core to compressing volume and improving charging efficiency lies in the development of core components. Changya Technology has independently developed a bidirectional inverter and adopted a wireless BMS system with high-density ternary lithium power cells, which supports active balancing and all-round protection while compressing space volume. The main control scheme uses multi-core SOC chips to run the modified Nuttx system.

With the continuous enhancement of research and development capabilities, in the future, Changya Technology can also reduce the data in these two dimensions by one-third.

In addition to the mobility and portability of the product, Changya Technology also attaches great importance to the production process and energy density of the product, playing a role in the field of household energy storage. With the support of technology, Changya Technology's products have AC super fast charging ability, which can fully charge 80% of the battery within 1 hour.

Unlike previous mobile energy storage products, Changya Technology is not only focusing on hardware properties, but also making efforts in software systems to enter the field of machine economy through mobile energy storage devices.

According to Qiu Juntao, his product also implements the Internet of Things function, which can be connected to the user's WIFI at home, making it easy for users to understand real-time data on product usage.

This actually reflects the intelligent attribute of Changya Technology. In the current rapid development of technology, electronic consumer goods are generally endowed with technological attributes, bringing consumers a more convenient user experience.

For example, taking the currently applicable scenario as an example, one of the specific purposes of the software and hardware system of Nagaya Technology is to use local edge computing and machine learning to self detect and diagnose devices. Enable users to know the usage status of mobile energy storage devices, as well as the condition of the devices themselves, and inform them in advance, including various components such as battery cells, PCS, DC/DC, etc.

Being able to implement self diagnosis also means that mobile energy storage products can open up the rental market. After all, the frequency of mobile energy storage usage is not as high as that of mobile phones and cars. Therefore, increasing the frequency of device usage also brings an incremental market for energy storage devices. Self diagnostic reports also provide solutions for users to understand device status and calculate rent.

In addition, Changya Technology's software system can also build a decentralized network in the future. For example, in the event of a natural disaster, the decentralized website can be used to see the number and situation of nearby devices in real time, and quickly dispatch equipment emergencies.

With the support of intelligence, Changya Technology's products reflect great considerations for humanized design. According to Qiu Juntao, if users do not use the device for a long time, the device will usually discharge on its own. If encountering sudden disasters, emergency electricity needs to be used, and the device's battery runs out, it will bring great inconvenience to users.

Changya Technology's products will automatically enter sleep mode after several hours of no load, in order to save power for users to use when starting their devices.

Qiu Juntao further described the principle to 36 Kr. Changya Technology divides the energy output of the system into three levels: full speed (full power) output, half speed output, and Hiberation. Under such intelligent grading design, the device will automatically adjust energy consumption, enabling the charger to remain charged even after being activated and turned on for a long period of time without use or charging.

Behind this, it cannot be separated from the efforts of the R&D team. It is understood that the R&D personnel of Changya Technology account for 80%. At the same time, in the field of research and development, it is also a key investment focus of Changya Technology. In the coming years, the funds used for research and development will account for more than 15% of the company's overall revenue.

Thanks to Changya Technology's intelligent genes, it has gained the favor of capital institutions.

Cheng Xiaohua, chairman and partner of Keying Capital, said: 'The demand of the mobile energy storage market is constantly being explored, and the industry is also growing at a high speed. At present, most of the energy storage products in the market are only charging function machines, and there is still a long way to go from intelligence. Therefore, Changya Technology is very consistent with our judgment of the future market. In addition to optimizing its performance and functions, it also carries an intelligent operating system, leaving a foundation for development and expansion of future application scenarios. In the future, mobile energy storage devices are not limited to the ability to provide power, but can become a platform to access other intelligent device terminals, achieve connectivity, and computing power sharing, which is also the scenario we expect to see. At the same time, the advantages of the founding team members of Changya Technology It is complementary enough and has achieved a good combination in R&D and market, which has laid a good foundation for the success of the project.'

The trend of interaction based on movable power sources

A company that can gain sustained momentum and continuously move forward must not only focus on the present, but also make accurate predictions about the industry's development trend and leverage its own advantages in order to step on the middle ground and become a leading player in the industry.

Changya Technology has its own thoughts on the future development trend of portable mobile energy storage track.

Shi Zhenyu believes that the development trend of the mobile energy storage industry is actually very clear - market demand is growing rapidly, competition is bound to intensify, and there may even be a mixed market situation. However, technology and brand are important basis for ensuring that enterprises can stand invincible.

At present, the application scenarios of mobile energy storage devices are mainly for outdoor, household, or disaster prevention and emergency use. However, Changya Technology has a further idea - can it be turned into a part of electricity?

For example, when relatives and friends visit, there may be a need to charge their phones. Compared to each person holding a power bank, it would be more convenient to have a mobile energy storage device on standby in the living room. Under the fast charging function, users only need 10-15 minutes to fully charge their phone. In office settings, mobile energy storage products also have enormous imagination space. Nowadays, many companies in Europe and America have a remote work status, and people often only go to the company once a week. SOHO at home will generate a large demand for electrical appliances, such as mobile phones, laptops, iPads, etc.

Due to the limitations of the family environment, if working from home overlaps with children's online classes, the charging needs of mobile work will be a big problem. If mobile energy storage devices are used, fast charging can be achieved and electronic products can be moved, which is very meaningful for working from home.

In the long run, replacing gasoline powered vehicles with new energy vehicles has become the trend. The whole vehicle is driven by electricity, and the interaction based on electricity and mobile electricity is also a very big trend, which is also an opportunity for mobile energy storage enterprises.

Based on the medium and long-term prediction of the industry, Changya Technology has planned a clear development blueprint for itself.

The most important thing, of course, is to master the core technology. Shi Zhenyu admitted that this is the biggest challenge for Changya Technology at present. At the application level of the C-end, Changya Technology needs to conduct more and more comprehensive market research to make its products more in line with consumer needs. On this basis, Changya Technology will collaborate with more upstream suppliers to create more attractive and better products that meet user needs.

In Shi Zhenyu's eyes, a good product that can truly achieve commercialization requires not only hardware strength, but also excellent software strength. Among them, design aesthetics have been emphasized multiple times. For example, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, once launched, defeated many competitors and led a new design trend. Dyson was able to achieve this precisely because its products are not only powerful and technologically advanced, but also meet people's pursuit of beauty in design.

Qiu Juntao, on the other hand, started more from the product itself and proposed his own ideas. At present, Changya Technology's product power covers 300-1000W, and can even cover 3000-5000W of mobile energy storage products. 'Our idea is to integrate high-power products with household scenarios and achieve fully automatic whole house power supply, which will be a larger application market.'

As the interview drew to a close, Shi Zhenyu described Changya Technology's simple corporate vision to 36Kr - driven by advanced technology research and development, to create industry-leading mobile energy storage products.

Guided by this vision, Changya Technology is striving to accumulate forward-looking technology and constantly trying innovative business models - such as leasing models for home users. For home users, the frequency of using mobile energy storage devices may be slightly lower compared to commercial customers. If leasing is adopted, it will be much more cost-effective. In addition, Changya Technology is also exploring more forms.

'Becoming the most powerful competitor of mainstream enterprises in the mainstream industry is what we want to do now.'