According to the latest data from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of October this year, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in China was 7.954 million units, an increase of 68.9% year-on-year; However, new energy vehicles still face the problem of insufficient charging stations.
Liu Yongdong, Deputy Secretary General of the China Electricity Council, stated in an interview with reporters that currently, the charging infrastructure industry is facing a shortage of charging stations and a low utilization rate of public charging stations, with an average utilization rate of less than 10% across the industry. But the utilization rate of public charging stations will not be very high in the future. For ordinary car owners, home charging is the best application scenario, and public charging stations can be used as a supplement.
The upgrade of charging infrastructure should focus on how to ensure the charging experience for car owners
Reporter: How do you view the current development status of the charging infrastructure industry?
Liu Yongdong: Currently, the charging infrastructure has entered a turning point of widespread application of new technologies and industrial upgrading. The construction of charging infrastructure began in 2010 and large-scale development began in 2015. After more than 10 years of development, the problem of charging piles has been solved.
At present, we need to solve how to make good use of charging stations, how to provide car owners with a good charging experience, how to adapt the construction and development of charging stations to the development of new energy vehicles, and how to adapt to the development of smart cities and energy transformation.
Reporter: What other issues do you think need to be addressed in the development of charging infrastructure?
Liu Yongdong: Firstly, as the new energy vehicle industry enters a new stage and there are more and more private cars, car owners need to solve the problem of fast charging on public charging stations and high-power charging; Secondly, new energy vehicle owners not only require fast and good charging, but also demand better reliability of charging station equipment.
Private piles are facing the problem of intelligence. At present, there are many factors that restrict the construction of piles in many residential areas. Taking the problem of insufficient electricity capacity as an example, it is necessary to solve this problem through new technologies for orderly charging.
From the perspective of energy attributes, the current development of charging infrastructure still needs to address issues such as grid interaction and low-carbon energy.
Reporter: What are the aspects of upgrading charging infrastructure? How to achieve upgrade?
Liu Yongdong: Firstly, there is a plan for upgrading. Currently, the charging infrastructure industry faces both a shortage of charging stations and a low utilization rate of public charging stations, with an average utilization rate of less than 10% across the industry. This is mainly a matching issue of charging infrastructure.
Next is the upgrading of charging technology, promoting the development of new charging technologies, high-power charging, and load aggregation for vehicle network interaction; The third is the integrated development of new energy vehicles, charging stations, and the power grid.
How to achieve upgrading, firstly, we hope that government departments can have relevant coordination and promotion; The second is to establish a commercial ecosystem, which should meet the construction of a nationwide network and the construction of charging network systems for specific scenarios in different regions; The third is to hope that standards can regulate and lead the development of the industry. It is suggested to introduce some mandatory national standards to ensure the safety bottom line during charging.
Reporter: What do you think is the connection between the charging infrastructure industry and the integrated development of transportation and energy?
Liu Yongdong: The first development goal is consistent, all moving towards a green and low-carbon direction; The second is the unity and integration of technology and standards, and the charging and discharging of new energy vehicles should be connected to the grid in advance.
The third and most crucial point is to achieve the integration of business models. When constructing the electricity market, it is necessary to design trading varieties that are more suitable for vehicle network interaction to reflect the discharge value. This is also a key issue that should be addressed in the next step.
The future trend of integration will be a gradual development stage, currently still in the flat stage at the bottom of the S-curve, and its development space comes from the continuous growth of the number of new energy vehicles.
Whether the charging pile is sufficient should depend on the satisfaction of consumers in finding the pile
Reporter: Can a 2.4:1 vehicle to pile ratio meet the current demand of the new energy vehicle market?
Liu Yongdong: We should objectively view the issue of vehicle to pile ratio. The concept of a 1:1 vehicle to pile ratio was proposed in 2015, but it has been found difficult to achieve this goal.
It is difficult to make a scientific judgment if we talk about the car to pile ratio in general. Firstly, the demand for charging varies among vehicles in different fields, with private cars having different requirements for charging stations compared to taxis; Secondly, taking AC charging as an example, the service capabilities of 7 kW and 350 kW are completely different.
The key lies in the satisfaction of car owners with finding piles, and how many piles can meet consumers' service needs from different vehicle models, regions, and other perspectives.
At present, there are other opinions in the industry, such as service radius and public pile utilization rate. If the public pile utilization rate reaches 20% -30%, it is sufficient.
Reporter: What are the difficulties in promoting the layout of charging stations in rural areas?
Liu Yongdong: The characteristics of rural charging pile construction and urban charging pile construction are different. From the perspective of private charging stations, it is actually very easy to build stations in rural areas. With enough land and space at home, installing a 7000 watt charging station is enough.
However, from the perspective of public charging stations, compared to cities, the utilization rate of public charging infrastructure in rural areas is relatively low, making it difficult to recover investment; The utilization rate of public charging facilities in county and rural areas is limited by the number of new energy vehicles, and the utilization rate is significantly lower than the average level, making it difficult to attract operators to invest in construction. In addition, the construction of charging stations in rural areas needs to address the issue of new rural construction and how to achieve rapid energy replenishment of public charging stations.
Reporter: The increase in charging prices at public charging stations this summer has attracted attention. What do you think will be the trend of charging prices at public charging stations in the future?
Liu Yongdong: Currently, the charging model for public charging stations in China is based on charging electricity fees plus service fees. The electricity fees are currently set by the government, and in the future, with the development of the spot market, it may form a pricing system that follows the market; The charging service fee is the revenue of the operator.
Charging stations belong to heavy asset investment, and public operators face significant operational pressure, some of which are also constrained by site pressure, such as site signing time being less than the equipment's service life. At present, there are still significant challenges and hidden dangers in relying on service fee income to support industrial development; From the perspective of industry development, the reasonable space for service fees should be appropriately considered.
But we should consider how to solve this problem from the perspective of the business model of charging services. In the future, there will be significant changes in the charging prices of public charging stations. On the one hand, they will be relatively cheap, and on the other hand, the prices during peak periods may be relatively expensive. The development trend is not an absolute increase or decrease in price, but rather a reflection of the changes in electricity market prices and the differentiated development of service capabilities themselves.
Reporter: What do you think is a reasonable range for the utilization rate of public charging stations?
Liu Yongdong: This issue can be reflected from the operational status of charging station enterprises. If the utilization rate of public charging stations reaches 20%, enterprises can make profits, but to further form a competitive situation, a reasonable range is 20% -30%. If charging station enterprises can operate normally and ensure market competition, it will form a good industrial development trend.
However, it should be noted that the utilization rate of public charging stations is not very high. The biggest advantage of charging is convenient energy storage. For consumers, home charging is the best application scenario, supplemented by public charging stations.
Source of Information and Acknowledgements
China Electricity Council
New Beijing News Beike Finance
