The difficulty of charging new energy vehicles has once again become a hot topic. Many new energy vehicle owners said they would reconsider whether to use electric vehicles for self driving during the holidays.
Chen Shihua, Deputy Secretary General of China Automobile Industry Association, said that new energy vehicles and the industrial chain have entered a stage of rapid development at the same time. According to the analysis of Guoyuan securities, under the constraint of the vehicle pile ratio of 1:1 in 2030, the total investment in the charging pile market will be nearly trillion yuan in the next decade, and the cumulative market space is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan from 2020 to 2025; According to the prediction of State Grid electric vehicle and prospective research institute, the market scale of charging pile in China will increase 30 times by 2030.
There are also hidden worries under prosperity. In the view of the industry, behind the charging difficulties reported by new energy vehicle users, the primary problem facing the development of the charging pile industry is 'difficult to make profits'. On the one hand, the market is favored by capital and is developing rapidly, which is about to become a new 'outlet'. On the other hand, the utilization rate of public charging piles is only about 4%, and some charging pile enterprises are difficult to make profits and exit the market.
How can charging pile enterprises solve the problem of profitability and become the winner on the tuyere?
'Zombie pile' and other problems to be solved
On the whole, there is still a phenomenon of more vehicles and less charging piles between the number of new energy vehicles and the number of charging piles.
According to the data of China electric vehicle charging infrastructure promotion alliance, by the end of 2020, the cumulative number of national charging infrastructure was 1.681 million, the number of domestic new energy vehicles in the same period was 492, and the proportion of vehicle piles was about 2.9:1.
With the explosive growth of the sales of new energy vehicles, the charging pile has not increased as much as the sales of new energy vehicles. According to the data of China electric vehicle charging infrastructure promotion alliance, as of September 30, 2021, the cumulative number of national charging infrastructure was 2.223 million, a year-on-year increase of 56.8%; In the same period, the number of new energy vehicles was 6.78 million, and the vehicle pile ratio decreased to 3.05:1.
By the end of September, of the 2223000 charging infrastructures, 1044000 were public charging piles and 1179000 were private charging piles. Taking the public charging pile as an example, the ratio of vehicle pile is 6.49:1, compared with 6.1:1 at the end of last year; In other words, each public charging pile corresponds to six or seven pure electric vehicles on average.
In the guidelines for the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure (2015-2020) released in 2015, it is mentioned that the vehicle pile ratio planned in China will basically reach 1:1 in 2020; But Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the automotive industry innovation research center of Northern University of technology, said, 'At present, the goal of 1:1 vehicle piles has not been achieved. At this stage, the ratio is basically 3:1. With the improvement of the endurance mileage of new energy vehicles, the number of charging piles is basically sufficient. However, it should be noted that the distribution of charging piles in China is uneven, the proportion of charging piles in the central and western regions is small, and the charging piles in the eastern and Pearl River Delta regions are relatively rich.' He further said that the layout of charging piles is restricted by many practical factors, such as geographical location and power capacity.
Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the national passenger car market information joint committee, has the same view. He believes that 'the car pile ratio is not of great significance. Most private car owners mainly use private charging piles. In this case, the use frequency of public charging piles is relatively low and the demand is small. On the whole, it can be said to be a feature of advanced construction.'
In addition to the uneven distribution of charging piles, there are still 'zombie piles' in the charging pile market due to incompatible charging interfaces caused by inconsistent production standards and inadequate management and maintenance Zhang Xiang said that, on the one hand, in order to reduce costs and reduce the special operation and maintenance management personnel of charging piles, the operators accelerated the aging of charging piles; on the other hand, the technology of charging piles was upgraded rapidly. After the state introduced the new standard at the end of 2018, the previous charging piles did not meet the new standard, resulting in no users to charge, accelerating the abandonment of this kind of charging piles.
According to Wang Zidong, the former director of the National 863 electric vehicle major special power battery test center, whether it is convenient for pure electric vehicles to supplement energy is the key to the development of the electric vehicle market. At present, the development of electric vehicles does not match the development of energy supplement. The energy supplement method is not only the charging pile, but also wireless charging and intelligent power transmission.
Behind the rapid development of charging pile
In the view of the industry, the uncoordinated proportion of vehicle piles and the uneven layout of charging piles are not the thorny problems in the development of charging pile industry. Cui Dongshu and other industry insiders believe that with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, charging piles as supporting infrastructure will also show a state of rapid development; the primary problems restricting their development are basic problems such as difficult business, single profit model and difficult profit Question.
According to the guidelines for the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure (2015-2020) According to the plan, nearly five million charging piles will be built in China by 2020, which attracts many capital and players. However, the reality is that a large number of charging pile enterprises have to be eliminated. Public data show that since 2019, 50% of enterprises in the domestic charging pile market have closed down or quit, and 30% of enterprises are struggling on the breakeven line. This means that only About 20% of enterprises are profitable.
Take telex, a subsidiary of trix, as an example. The financial report of trix shows that from 2016 to 2020, trix lost 29.423 million yuan, 19.489 million yuan, 136 million yuan, 111 million yuan and 77.696 million yuan respectively, with a total loss of 374 million yuan in five years.
However, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, as a supporting facility, the charging pile has once again become a tuyere, which is favored by the capital market.
In May, Xingxing charging announced that it had obtained the b-round financing of Gaoling leading investment and IDG, and the estimated value of Xingxing charging after financing was 15.5 billion yuan; in June, Yunkuai charging completed the B1 round financing of Ningde times and other investments; in the same June, Telai power, a subsidiary of tride, introduced the strategic investment of 10 enterprises including state power investment and Three Gorges group through capital increase and share expansion; in September, Yunkuai charging again announced that it was completed by Weilai capital And other investments.
Special call chairman Yu Dexiang also said in an interview with shell finance reporters, 'behind the achievements of special call are huge capital investment and huge R & D expenses. Special call lost a lot four years before its establishment, and I don't know when the inflection point of the industry will appear. In previous years, it has accumulated a loss of 1.2 billion yuan.'
Cui Dongshu believes that 'the difficulty of charging pile profit is mainly due to the relatively unbalanced development of new energy vehicles and the weak demand for public charging, resulting in the poor utilization rate of the whole public charging pile; in addition, the charging infrastructure can not meet the needs of consumers, which is more time-consuming and the comprehensive cost is high.'
Zhang Xiang said, 'first, the price system of public charging piles is unreasonable, which is quite different from that of household charging, and parking fees need to be paid at the same time; second, the mileage of new energy vehicles is increased, and the dependence on charging piles is reduced.' Taking Beijing and Shanghai as examples, the average electricity consumption of former public charging piles is 2 yuan, while that of household charging is a few cents.
In addition, charging pile enterprises still have a single profit model. At present, they mainly rely on electricity price difference and service fee; taking Beijing as an example, the service fee for special calls during the day is 20 to 30 cents per kilowatt hour, and about 10 cents at night. Not only that, charging pile enterprises are also fighting a price war to grab market share, but they are also facing high cost and low income while soliciting customers Operational challenges.
The cost of a single gun is about 100000
According to the data of China electric vehicle charging infrastructure promotion alliance, at present, the concentration of charging pile facilities in China is still high. In September, five companies such as special call, star charging, State Grid, cloud express charging and China Southern Power Grid accounted for 74.5% of the public charging pile Market; the basic business model of the industry is also moving towards 'diversification of participants' and 'more segmentation of market areas' Evolution in the direction of 'multi-channel revenue sources'.
According to the analysis of Shengang securities, with the policy support, the scale effect of charging pile will further appear, and the industrial development expectation may increase.
Cui Dongshu said that charging pile enterprises make profits. First, they grasp the group users and do a good job in scenario application, so as to achieve an effective combination of construction and consumption; second, they reduce the cost of public charging piles, improve the charging speed, and let consumers save money and time.
Mr. Zhang, the person in charge of a charging station around Beijing, said, 'The construction cost is about 100000 yuan per shot. After counting the charging service fee, charging price difference and other income, it will take at least three and a half years to realize the cost recovery of the equipment; but this does not include the rent, operation and maintenance cost, labor cost and other expenses. If all are counted, it will take at least four years to realize the cost recovery of the equipment.' However, he also said that there would be some subsidies to shorten the time to return to capital.
According to insiders, if enterprises want to make profits, the average utilization rate of charging piles needs to reach 10% - 15%, but at this stage, the utilization rate is only about 4%. Cui Dongshu believes that high investment and slow return are the characteristics of the charging pile industry, but in fact, enterprises have received subsidies for building charging piles. At this stage, charging pile enterprises belong to the stage of building piles to make money, and will gradually enter a gentle waiting period. In the future, the charging pile industry should be in a state of continuous low profitability and is unlikely to become a highly profitable industry.
With the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the improvement of market penetration, Zhang Xiang and other industry insiders generally believe that the market demand for charging piles is strong and the market prospect is great, but it is still difficult to make profits at this stage, which will take at least three or five years.