Huayuxin, an "unusual" player in the industry, moves the automobile production line into the photovoltaic and energy storage sector.

No one wants to spend 3 minutes checking the device just because they forgot their password, then complete a series of actions of "disconnecting the AC switch - closing the AC switch - disconnecting the AC switch - closing the AC switch" within 4 minutes, and finally ensure to log in to the APP to change the password within 10 minutes.

However, this is the norm for most inverters. Due to design requirements, a password must be set when the inverter is initially installed. But since it is used infrequently, many people will forget the password. The usual solution is on - site reset, which is very troublesome on the one hand, and on the other hand, the security of the password cannot be guaranteed.

Wei Qiliang, the technical director of Huayuxin R & D Center, told 36Kr that in response to the inverter password reset problem, they developed a patent for "a wireless device password setting method, device, computer equipment, and storage medium". Users can freely generate a "super password" based on the product's serial number, and then set the password wirelessly through the originally built - in password setting interface.

The wireless password setting feature is far less important than parameters such as power and price in inverter products, but it precisely reflects Huayuxin's product concept.

"Our tenet is to take on the complexity ourselves and let customers enjoy simplicity," said Wei Qiliang.

Based on this customer - first, "technology black - box" development concept, Huayuxin keenly discovered the new industry trend of photovoltaic - energy storage integration.

In the early days, photovoltaic power plants basically only had two major products: photovoltaic panels and inverters. In recent years, electrochemical energy storage has gradually emerged, which can well solve the problem of large fluctuations in photovoltaic power generation and has gradually become a must - have option for photovoltaic power plants.

However, many photovoltaic power plants, especially those built earlier, did not consider the possibility of connecting energy storage during the design stage. As a result, after installers connect energy storage products, the overall maintenance and installation costs are too high.

Installers hope that product manufacturers can provide integrated products of photovoltaic, energy storage, and inverters to solve the problem of product incompatibility.

Based on this, Huayuxin integrated photovoltaic, energy storage, and inverters into a single system, significantly reducing the installation cost and enabling installers to increase the number of installations from two per day to six per day.

Wei Qiliang introduced in detail to 36Kr how this concept is applied to their household energy storage product, the All - in - One photovoltaic - energy storage integrated machine. Through built - in circuits, the product only retains the wiring slots for PV and AC outputs, as well as an independently developed cloud - platform operation and maintenance system. It only takes less than an hour to complete the interconnection of the three major products of photovoltaic, energy storage, and inverters and simplifies the operation and maintenance process.

In recent years, the price of photovoltaic panels has dropped from more than 2 yuan per watt to 0.7 yuan per watt, and the price of energy - storage cells has dropped from 1 yuan per watt - hour to 0.3 yuan per watt - hour. It seems that price determines customer demand.

But Wei Qiliang doesn't think so. He told 36Kr, "Low - price competition is definitely not our path. We focus on value competition."

 An "Outlier" in the Industry

Huayuxin has been low - key and steady in the photovoltaic - energy storage competition in the past few years.

In 2022, Huayuxin was officially established. At that time, the newly installed photovoltaic capacity in China reached a new high again, and the installed capacity of energy - storage batteries increased by 180% year - on - year. That year, the prices of photovoltaic panels and energy - storage cells also reached their peaks. There was a shortage of goods in the market. Both first - tier and second - and third - tier manufacturers accelerated production expansion and sales that year.

Industry legends are not uncommon. Enterprises established only a few years ago can quickly rise with the wind and become star companies that attract much attention.

However, Huayuxin did not rush to expand its market influence. Instead, it chose to invest 70% of its manpower in the R & D of core technologies. Since its establishment three years ago, Huayuxin has deeply deployed in fields such as power electronics topology, core algorithms, heat, magnetism, EMC, BMS, EMS, AI, and intelligent cloud platforms, and has more than 70 core intellectual property rights.

Wei Qiliang told 36Kr that Huayuxin clearly realized at the beginning of its establishment that price competition is only the primary stage of the industry. Only enterprises that truly focus on technology can survive in the long run. Huayuxin chose to "be friends with long - term value".

For this reason, Huayuxin is rooted in customer needs and deploys and implements practical projects globally - building hundreds of demonstration sites every year, deeply refining the real pain points in various application scenarios, continuously verifying and optimizing product solutions, and gradually building its own "moat".

Huayuxin's photovoltaic - energy storage project site in Germany

Wei Qiliang gave an example to 36Kr. Customers generally hope that photovoltaic panels have a good low - light effect to increase power - generation revenue. However, the current is unstable in low - light conditions, which is likely to damage the photovoltaic panels. The industry simply takes a one - size - fits - all approach and makes the photovoltaic panels "start late".

Another example is that during the operation of photovoltaic panels, due to fluctuations in power - generation, harmonic oscillation problems will occur, and many manufacturers do not specifically solve them.

Currently, through the patent for "a split - phase inverter circuit control method, device, storage medium, and split - phase inverter circuit", Huayuxin can accurately suppress the harmonics in the circuit by determining the AC current difference, improving the power quality. Through the patent for "a control method, device, electronic device, and storage medium for a photovoltaic inverter", Huayuxin has solved the problem of equipment burnout caused by unstable power supply of photovoltaic modules in low - light conditions, ensuring the stability of the photovoltaic inverter's operation.

Many manufacturers in the industry also claim to invest in R & D to address these pain points, but the actual implementation is slow. Instead of laboriously researching and delaying the product launch time, it is faster to sell as many products as possible in the market.

Huayuxin believes that products should not only meet the general industry standards but also have their own unique product advantages.

For example, in order to meet the most stringent North American national certifications, Huayuxin launched development projects such as network R & D and EMC testing and finally obtained the relevant certifications, achieving an efficiency certification 1% - 1.5% higher than the standard requirements.

According to Wei Qiliang, Huayuxin currently has more than 30 laboratories dedicated to basic research, engineering test capabilities, reliability tests, EMC tests, device analysis tests, anti - interference noise experiments, etc., with nearly 300 test capabilities.

Huayuxin's testing laboratory

With advanced scientific research capabilities and continuous R & D investment, Huayuxin has achieved full - domain self - research capabilities from photovoltaic inverters, energy - storage systems to intelligent cloud platforms.

Wei Qiliang introduced to 36Kr that even before the issuance of Document No. 136, Huayuxin had already reserved capabilities such as grid - forming energy storage, frequency and peak regulation of photovoltaic - energy storage systems, and virtual power plant aggregation to cope with the impact brought by the entry of new energy into the market.

Revolutionizing Photovoltaic - Energy Storage by Learning from the Automotive Industry

Being "friends with long - term value" doesn't just mean being friends with technology. Huayuxin knows that the products delivered to customers are the touchpoints for customers to perceive technological capabilities. At the beginning of the company's establishment, Huayuxin decided to launch the industry's first "automotive - grade" battery production line.

The so - called "automotive - grade" can be simply understood as products used in automobiles. Since automobiles encounter more complex environments, the requirements for products are also more stringent.

Compared with the common household batteries in the industry, the best - grade automotive - grade cells are Class A, and Huayuxin uses Class A+ cells, which are even better than Class A.

These cells have very strong consistency, and the voltage difference is 0.4 - 0.3 millivolts lower than that of common cells. In the selection process, the automotive - grade batteries have more screening procedures and a higher elimination rate. They are produced on a fully automated production line to ensure product consistency and yield. The BMS also uses automotive - grade high - precision models.

The final result is that automotive - grade batteries are safer, have a smaller temperature difference, and have a longer lifespan, bringing more value to customers.

Currently, Huayuxin has an intelligent manufacturing base of about 40,000 square meters, equipped with an AI sorting and automated quality inspection system, achieving a maximum difference in cell capacity of less than or equal to 1.5%.

Wei Qiliang told 36Kr that since this production line is the first automotive - grade battery production line applied in the photovoltaic - energy storage industry, the Huayuxin team also faced many challenges in the early stage of construction.

Wei Qiliang recalled that there is a mechanical gripper in the production line used to move equipment. Since the gripper needs to be compatible with different equipment, the design process was quite complicated. The person in charge of the supply chain stayed on - site for more than a month to solve the problem.

Huayuxin's automotive - grade production line factory

So Huayuxin thought of its in - depth ecological partner, Leapmotor. As a leading enterprise among new car - making forces, Leapmotor not only has a mature safety design concept for products but also has resources such as intelligent manufacturing production lines.

With the help of Leapmotor, Huayuxin solved a series of difficulties such as ATE customized development, MES system, R & D - supply chain collaboration, and AI quality inspection, and the production yield increased rapidly.

"By absorbing the advantages of other industries and achieving cross - track collaborative innovation, we can achieve a highly mature level of safety and an improvement in manufacturing efficiency," said Wei Qiliang.

Targeting high - quality products also means targeting high cost - performance. Although the upfront investment cost of building an automotive - grade production line is higher, the subsequent increase in product unit density, improvement in yield, and extension of service life can enable customers to enjoy higher returns at the same price.

Another aspect that is rarely noticed is that through high - quality and highly consistent automotive - grade batteries, Huayuxin's photovoltaic - energy storage integrated products can be installed more conveniently, thereby reducing the cost of the entire product.

Thinking More Than Customers

For Huayuxin, "being friends with long - term value" means being friends with customers. "Good steel should be used for the most important parts." It not only works hard but also keeps an eye on the market.

Wei Qiliang calls this concept the "color - coated steel tile" spirit. He told 36Kr a R & D story about "color - coated steel tiles".

Color - coated steel tiles are building materials widely used in buildings such as houses and warehouses. When building a photovoltaic power plant on color - coated steel tiles, the metal environment formed by the color - coated steel tiles will strongly reflect and absorb wireless signals, weaken the effective distance of traditional wireless communication, generate a large amount of electromagnetic noise, reduce the signal - to - noise ratio of wireless signals, and significantly affect the stability of photovoltaic equipment connection and remote operation and maintenance.

When this problem first appeared, the industry called it the "color - coated steel tile dilemma", and customers gradually accepted this situation.

Wei Qiliang said that although customers understood our products, we didn't compromise. We invested a lot of R & D efforts to solve the "color - coated steel tile dilemma".

Huayuxin's North American "color - coated steel tile" project site

From environmental simulation to wireless algorithms, from underlying R & D to on - site tests, Huayuxin even built a laboratory within the company. Finally, after half a year of research, it developed the iMesh technology specifically for micro - inverters, solving the "color - coated steel tile dilemma". Currently, the "color - coated steel tile dilemma" has become a basic technical problem that industry products must solve.

Having the courage to challenge oneself is the essence of the "color - coated steel tile" spirit. Only by demanding more of ourselves than customers do can we win customers' trust.

Having the courage to challenge oneself is not reckless without strategy. There are many cases where a large amount of funds are spent but nothing is achieved in order to achieve R & D goals. Huayuxin's confidence comes from both its underlying technical strength and the flexible cloud - platform R & D ability and more resilient supply - chain ability brought about by full - domain self - research.

Wei Qiliang gave an example to 36Kr. There was a chip that needed to be imported and was subject to a tariff as high as 125%. In this case, because the chip was also independently designed by Huayuxin, Huayuxin quickly switched to domestic chips to achieve stable product delivery.

In addition, through the cloud platform built by Huayuxin, R & D personnel can directly communicate with customers in Europe and North America, quickly respond to customer needs, and formulate customized solutions.

Huayuxin employees explaining technical highlights to customers

In order to effectively understand customer needs, Huayuxin has also trained a group of "technical salespeople". Technical salespeople not only need to understand technical parameters but also the underlying technical logic.

In Huayuxin's entire sales system, salespeople do not just play the single role of selling products but act as communicators who understand