What are the general classifications of electronic cigarettes?

1. HNB

Heat-not-burn, or HNB for short, refers to heating tobacco, but not reaching the level of ignition, allowing nicotine to volatilize at a certain temperature.

The raw material used is also tobacco, which is similar to common cigarettes, but also undergoes special processing. Since it involves tobacco raw materials, it belongs to tobacco control in China. At present, only China Tobacco can sell it in China. This is a very large potential market. Compared with traditional cigarettes, it is more beneficial to health, and there is a certain probability that it can be sold at a higher price. China Tobacco will definitely spread it on a large scale in the future.

When using it, insert the special pod (the HNB pod is similar to a cigarette) into the cigarette machine, and then smoke it.

The representative brand of HNB is the brand IQOS under the tobacco giant Philip Morris. There is a domestic listed company Yingqu Technology as one of its supply chains, providing IQOS with plastic components such as charging boxes (MU) and heating rods (TSH) (but only part of Ying Fun Technology’s business).

The high probability of China Tobacco’s entry into electronic cigarettes is also the main force of HNB (personal speculation). It is known that Laimi under Wuye Shen has done this in China (Although Wuye Shen has no shares in China Tobacco, its production is responsible for Guangdong China Tobacco. ).

Who is the future between HNB and Vape, I will not comment here due to space limitations, and I have heard many conflicting views.

But in the current market, the vape market is much larger.

I have personally tested HNB, and the HNB technology is still somewhat immature:

①The number of times a cigarette can be smoked is far less than that of vape, the frequency of changing cartridges is higher, and the convenience is not as good as vape (think about changing HNB cartridges when you are driving); ②It takes a certain amount of time to heat up, unlike vape, you can smoke when the cartridge is plugged in; ③Heating will first make the whole hood more “hand-warming”, and it consumes a lot of power, which also causes the HNB hood to need to be charged frequently; ④The amount of smoke is not constant. Sometimes the amount of smoke is very small, but after taking a sip, it feels like nothing is sucked out; ⑤ You don’t know how many pods are left to smoke, and you don’t know when the cigarette is finished and needs to be replaced.

2. E-liquid atomization

E-liquid atomization, the English name is Vape. The current mainstream, the most common type of electronic cigarette, is to heat the nicotine-containing e-liquid to atomize it, and then inhaled by the human body.

Vape can be divided into two categories.

2.1 Open

Open type, the hood and e-juice are sold separately, and users need to buy additional e-liquid after buying the hood.

Generally, the open hood brand company will empty the cartridge, and then ask the user to inject the e-liquid into the empty cartridge by himself.

How many times an empty pod can be used depends on the customer. Anyway, there will be a problem of odor, that is, the flavor of the e-liquid injected last time will remain in the pod.

The open type is definitely time-consuming, but the advantage is that it can be DIYed, and some old smokers like to make their own e-liquid (the production is very simple, maybe even simpler than home brewing).

The current open US market will be much larger.

2.2 Closed

Closed, the merchant will help you fill the e-liquid in the cartridge or disposable electronic cigarette in advance, and users do not need to add e-liquid by themselves.

The company represented is RELX (NASDAQ: RLX).

At present, the closed market will be much larger. According to the data in the prospectus of Maxwell, the capacity of the open market is about 60% of that of the closed market.

Closed can be further divided into two categories.

The cartridge type, the pod and the pod are sold separately. After smoking a pod, the pod is kept, and the pod can be replaced directly.

There are about 100 cigarette machines and about 30-50 pods, but with the battle of brands, the price has dropped now, and there are even people who buy pods to send cigarette machines.

Taking the CRLBAR data as a reference: The pod is 99 yuan for a box of three, and the cigarette machine is more than 200. If the frequency of pumping is very high every day, it is almost non-stop pumping, usually one per day. If the hood is usually full in 20-30 minutes? Then generally a day is not a problem.

Disposable electronic cigarettes, pods and cigarette machines are integrated, and they are thrown away after smoking. It is convenient, but the amount of each is slightly lower than that of the refill type, which is generally suitable for new smokers.