The utilization rate is less than 10%, and the charging pile is fighting a "price war". Who will support the 100 billion market?

Electronic enthusiast network report (text / Li Wanwan) With the development of new energy vehicles, the construction of charging piles is also accelerating. In 2020, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure nationwide will be 1.681 million units, an increase of 37.9% year-on-year. According to the plan, the number of new energy vehicles is expected to exceed 26 million in 2025. Based on the ratio of 1.5:1 to piles, the number of charging piles in the future will exceed 10,000, with a market space of 100 billion.
However, the current charging pile market is full of chaos. First, because of the uneven distribution of charging piles, many places have insufficient utilization of charging piles. Second, in order to grab customers, some charging pile operators have introduced capital and competed for low prices. What are the reasons for the current chaos, what impact does this have on the future development of new energy vehicles and charging piles, and how to deal with it?
"Charging by 1 cent", charging pile operators fight for low prices to grab users
Since last year, charging pile platforms have been fighting for low prices to grab users in many cities. These platforms have launched promotional activities such as direct reductions, free service fees, and large discount coupons. For example, Shandong, Shanxi and other provinces have recently appeared " A large subsidy of 1 cent charge. According to reports, some electric vehicle drivers will download several charging pile platform apps on their mobile phones to obtain optimized activities on various platforms.
Therefore, there will also be a charging parking space, and the price will vary on different platforms. For example, a charging station in Chaoyang District, Beijing, the price including service fees in the evening is 1.1697 yuan per kilowatt-hour on a certain platform. On another platform, it is 0.7947 yuan. The difference per degree is more than 3 cents and 7 minutes, and the price difference for a full car is close to 20 yuan.
Activities such as low-price promotions are conducive to attracting users. However, this also brings great troubles to operators who are unable to give preferential treatment. why? Not all operators have enough capital to give users low prices, regardless of profitability.
The current charging pile industry has a large amount of investment and extremely low profitability. For example, a charging station located in the park parking lot next to the main road in Haidian District, Beijing, invested more than 1 million yuan in power supply, civil engineering, and charging infrastructure. , But also to sign a long-term lease agreement with the owner of the parking space, but the income is a few dimes and a few dimes, including the electricity bill with no profit margin and the service fee of less than 2 dimes.
In the face of the current intensifying price war in the charging market, some operators are unbearable. Recently, a "Shenzhen Electric Vehicle Charging Industry Joint Complaint Letter" has been circulating on the Internet. More than 40 charging operators participated in the Industry organizations filed complaints, hoping to obtain an environment that guarantees the long-term sustainable development of the charging industry.
Why can individual manufacturers initiate low-price competition? The reason is that there is capital involved. Everyone can see that the battle of new energy vehicles is imperative, and the future development space of charging piles as supporting facilities is huge. Therefore, capital enters the game first, and individual operators are the first to obtain users and occupy the market. To take the opportunity, a number of charging pile companies announced the completion of a new round of financing of several hundred million yuan at the beginning of this year.
This situation of relying on capital to fight for low prices to initiate competition will undoubtedly bring serious adverse effects to the charging pile industry that is still in the development stage. More and more companies will be forced to withdraw from the market because they cannot bear it. There is still a long way to go for development, and more enterprises are needed to participate and build together. In addition, when the market matures and only a few operators develop, users will be hurt.
The concentration of charging piles is obvious, and the utilization rate of a single charging pile is less than 10%
At present, the concentration of charging piles in some provinces and cities is too high, mainly in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and other metropolitan areas. According to statistics, the top ten provinces and cities in the country for the number of public charging piles in 2020 are Guangdong and Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, Hubei, Henan, Hebei. Among them, the number of public charging piles in Guangdong is 110 thousand, ranking first in the country.
Why is there a relatively concentrated situation in some areas? The field of charging piles is a high-investment and asset-heavy industry. In the early stages of development, many charging pile companies deployed charging piles in a wide-spread network mode, received subsidies and financing, but did not plan and layout. In the early stage, many companies focused on construction , Ignoring operations. Over time, some areas have been over-built and a large number of charging piles are left unused.
The impact is that the utilization rate of charging piles in many places is lower than expected. Zhu Jianzhong, general manager of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of a charging pile operator: A parking space needs to be charged for at least three to four hours a day, and basically it needs to be charged to 300 kWh. Meet the basic return on investment. The utilization rate of DC piles is at the city's average level, basically 15%, and some stations may not have reached three or four hours.
This situation is widespread throughout the country. The data shows that in 22 of the 25 large cities across the country, the average time utilization of a single public charging pile is less than 10%.
In the past few years, many companies have withdrawn from the market due to the low utilization rate of charging piles and low profitability. According to data, there were about 300 charging pile companies in China in 2017. As of now, at least 50% have withdrawn. A person in charge of a charging pile company revealed that 30% of companies are struggling on the baseline of breakeven.
So what is the current pattern of charging operation market? In 2020, there are 28 large-scale charging pile operators nationwide. Among them, Telaidian, State Grid and Star Charging account for 70% of the market. Telaidian has the largest market share and the first in terms of charging capacity.
The charging piles are unevenly distributed, the utilization rate is low, and the profitability is insufficient. How to deal with it?
The poor development of the charging pile field will undoubtedly affect the promotion of new energy vehicles. In the future, with the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the construction of charging piles needs to be increased. However, the focus needs to promote the construction of cities and towns with insufficient charging piles. In addition, Charging pile companies are also thinking about strategies to increase utilization and increase profitability, such as replacing public charging piles with fast charging and building a charging ecology.
First, the construction of cities and towns with insufficient charging piles is speeding up. Recently, the State Grid Puyang Power Supply Company made full use of the free space within the unit and the township government to apply to the provincial power company for the construction of orderly charging piles for residents to promote new energy vehicles to the countryside. Up to now, a total of 43 orderly charging piles have been invested in township areas.
Seven departments including the Chengdu Economic and Information Bureau have also recently jointly issued the "Implementation Rules for the Construction and Management of Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities in Chengdu Residential Areas". By 2025, existing communities with construction conditions will achieve full coverage of public piles. Proportionally construct charging piles and reserve installation conditions for charging piles.
On August 25th, the construction of the charging station for the public parking lot in Jiangjin District of Chongqing City started. It is expected that the charging station for Dongmen Road, Jijiang Street, Jiangjin District, and the charging station for the supporting parking lot of Binjiang New Town Administrative Center will be completed in the first phase of this year. There are 31 charging stations and 130 charging piles.
On August 23, State Grid Gansu Tianshui Power Supply Company built five 60-kilowatt DC double gun charging piles in Xuanyuan Lake, Qingshui County, officially put into use, which can provide charging services for nearly 200 new energy vehicles every day. It plans to add 16 more charging stations in 2023 to reach the goal of covering all townships in the county.
Second, public charging piles are converted to fast charging to increase user utilization. The charging pile is divided into slow charging and fast charging. It takes about 8-10 hours to fully charge the battery with slow charging, and 80% can be charged with fast charging in about half an hour.
What hinders tram users from using public charging piles? First, the electricity bill for public charging piles is higher than that of private ones at home. According to Mr. Gao, a Beijing tram user, the minimum household electricity price is less than 50 cents per kilowatt-hour. Public charging piles only have the same price as household electricity during valley hours, reaching about 1.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour during peak hours. . The second is to pay the parking fee to the parking lot. Mr. Gao said that there is a charging pile that is very affordable, but the parking fee is very high, 8 yuan an hour. Go there to charge, and the discounted fee also pays the parking fee.
Then the use of fast charging and shortening the parking time can reduce parking fees. Major public charging pile operators are replacing them one after another. Experts predict that the construction of fast charging networks will become the trend of public charging piles.
Third, build a charging ecology, increase utilization and increase profitability. For example, the special call has proposed the technical route of the car charging ecological network. The company has led the establishment of a cross-industry, cross-professional, cross-enterprise, and cross-category ecosystem, through integration with communication technology, cloud computing, smart grid, car networking and other technologies. The integration of new technologies to improve the utilization rate of infrastructure, thereby enhancing the profitability of the charging pile industry.
Summarize
The development of new energy vehicles is a global trend. In addition to China, other countries are also facing problems in the construction of charging piles. For example, Japan is also building a large number of charging transfers. However, its new energy penetration rate is not high, and a large number of charging piles are out of service. Condition.
In the future, with the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the utilization rate of charging piles will inevitably increase. However, in the face of various problems in the current construction layout, the government, enterprises and other institutions need to plan the layout carefully to avoid excessive in some areas. Construction is extremely inadequate in certain areas, and at the same time, we must be wary of excessive capital participation, which will bring unhealthy competition to the market.