If we talk about one of the most heated words in recent times, it's "new infrastructure".
Compared with the traditional old infrastructure, the new infrastructure that is "new infrastructure construction", focusing on technology-driven infrastructure construction, to promote the traditional industry to the network, digital, intelligent development.
New energy charging piles are among those that have given the new energy automobile industry a shot in the arm during the epidemic, while also attracting a lot of attention to the charging pile field, which is bound to promote the rapid development of the field.
Recently, there are a lot of articles are describing the charging pile industry in the future will reach how much market size, and how the real situation, the charging pile field development situation, in the end there is no profit, the new infrastructure to speed up the progress of the charging pile field can bring what? Automotive headline APP through interviews to understand some of the current situation of the industry.
1. Charging pile still exists a large gap
Charging pile as a companion industry of new energy vehicles, with the development of new energy vehicles, but the development of charging pile speed did not catch up with new energy vehicles.
As of the end of 2019, the country's new energy vehicle ownership amounted to 3.81 million, accounting for 1.46% of the total number of automobiles, an increase of 1.2 million, or 46.05%, compared with the end of 2018. Among them, the possession of pure electric vehicles amounted to 3.1 million, accounting for 81.19% of the total number of new energy vehicles.
The growth of new energy vehicles is basically consistent with the prediction that "the national electric vehicle ownership will exceed 5 million by 2020" in the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Development Guidelines (2015-2020) issued by the Development and Reform Commission in 2015, but the growth of charging piles has failed to reach the vehicle-to-pile ratio of 1:1 prediction.
According to the latest data released by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (hereinafter referred to as "the Alliance") in February this year, as of the end of January 2020, the country has built 531,000 public **** charging piles and 712,000 private charging piles, with a vehicle-to-pile ratio of about 3.5:1.
Nevertheless, China's public **** charging piles and private charging piles have been built at a rate of about 3.5:1.
Despite this, the construction rate of China's public **** charging piles has declined somewhat. According to Alliance Director Zhang Fan said, the current construction of public **** charging pile is more inclined to increase the density of charging station points, charging station average number of piles built. At the same time, the centralization of operating enterprises is becoming more and more obvious, five operating enterprises in 2019 the number of new operating class charging pile more than 100,000, accounting for more than 90% of the new charging pile.According to the "new energy automobile industry development plan (2021-2035)" (draft) planning, by 2025 new energy automobile sales accounted for about 25%, conservatively expected new energy automobile sales of about 7 million.
If the charging pile construction according to the current construction speed, not only want to make up the shortfall is very difficult, at the same time trillions of dollars of the market is only a water and moon mirror flowers.
2. Profit model is complex and immature
When it comes to the profitability of charging piles, many people believe that the profit cycle is long, the need to invest in fixed costs in the early stage, and the impact of profitability factors, high profitability.
But after the auto headline APP understanding, charging pile business model is varied, and profitability is polarized. Specifically, the larger operators profit model is still immature, but specific solution providers have already realized profits.
Recently, Tecloud received 1.35 billion yuan of capital increase, and has been fully accounted for, after the capital increase, the overall valuation of Tecloud is about 7.8 billion yuan. Tecloud has become the largest charging network ecological operation company in China since 2017, and as of December 2019, Tecloud has built more than 200,000 piles, accounting for 40% of the total number of charging piles in the country.
In April 2019, Yu Dexiang, chairman of Tricore, the parent company of TCC, said that TCC had crossed the break-even line and started to make a profit, while Yu Dexiang said, "Sensitive information involving listed companies can only wait for subsequent disclosure."
Star charging in 2017 had been the only operator to achieve sustained profitability, at present, the platform *** there are self-built charging equipment terminals more than 150,000, covering nearly 270 cities across the country, the daily charging volume of about 5 million degrees, the APP already has nearly 700,000 high-frequency users, is one of China's mainstream private electric vehicle charging operators.
Star charging marketing department Zhao Ying in a recent interview with Auto Headline APP did not respond positively to the recent profitability, another relevant personnel also sold a secret, said Wan Gang new energy chairman Shao Danwei will be in the near future Sumeru mountain conference for a detailed introduction, it is not convenient to disclose for the time being.
Putian new energy is the early establishment of charging operation service provider, in addition to private car customers, Putian new energy also has a large number of corporate customers, such as buses, logistics vehicles, cabs and network car.
Compared with the C-end individual customers, B-end customers seem more stable, but according to Putian new energy Beijing market leader Ding Kun in an interview with Automotive Headlines APP did not directly reply to the profit situation, just that the company's profitability is more sensitive, it is not convenient to disclose too much.
In addition to the self-built and self-operated large-scale operators, cloud fast charging only a small number of self-built piles, more for the "industry in the long tail" small and medium-sized charging pile operators access SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) to provide services to users. With this operation service platform, CloudFastCharge has quickly become a dark horse in the charging pile field. Up to now, CloudFastCharge has formed cooperation with more than 800 operators and accessed 45,000 charging piles, covering more than 100 cities.
For the profitability of cloud fast charging, its commercial director Zhang Sidong told Auto Headline APP that it is still not profitable, but expressed whether optimistic about realizing profitability in the future, "cloud fast charging the main profitable business for small and medium-sized charging pile operators to provide services, and get revenue in the service fee, to realize the profitability is just a matter of scale. "
Wise Charge Technology is the only charging pile company that explicitly said it has already realized three months of profitability in 2019. Founded in 2015, Smart Charge Technology not only produces smart charging hardware, but also sends out supporting software and cloud platform services, and currently deploys more than 30,000 charging piles across the country, and recently took Berlin's largest bus charging project.
Ding Rui, founder and CEO of Smart Charging Technology, told Auto Headline APP, "Smart Charging's business model is more about empowerment, allowing local operators to serve local drivers, rather than a cooperative charging closed-loop system for operators."
In addition to operators, some new energy vehicle enterprises have also laid out their own piles.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, has said that in December 2019 Xiaopeng Automobile's super charging station business realized a single-month profit, and Xiaopeng Automobile also opened charging piles free of charge to its own owners after the epidemic began.
"Unlike charging operators, the layout of Xiaopeng Auto's charging business is still primarily designed to meet the expanding charging needs of Xiaopeng Auto owners." Li Pengcheng, vice president and general manager of brand public relations of Xiaopeng Automobile, said this in an interview with Auto Headline APP.
Talking about the secret of Xiaopeng Auto's profitability, Li Pengcheng believes that "the key lies in making full use of the cooperation model to improve the operational efficiency of the charging business and rapidly form a scale effect." It is understood that at present, Xiaopeng Auto has reached interconnection cooperation with the nation's leading charging network operators such as Lianxing Technology, Tejian, Star Charging and so on.
At the same time, Li Pengcheng also said that the overall utilization rate of Xiaopeng Auto's super charging station is relatively high, in addition to considering charging demand, charging speed and other factors in the charging station site selection to ensure that the user's good experience, super charging piles are also open to third-party new energy vehicle owners.
It's worth mentioning that some new energy vehicle owners also enjoy their own charging spaces when they are free.
According to a new energy vehicle owner in Changping, Beijing, he has two piles, one of which *** enjoys a charging pile of more than 1,600 yuan a year down the income, in addition to the charging cost of 1,400 yuan a year for their own cars, but also earned an additional 200 yuan.
3. What's holding back profitability?
In Ding Kun's view, the domestic demand for charging has not been liberalized is the majority of charging pile operating companies have not realized the fundamental reason for profitability. He believes that the market for new energy vehicles has not yet been fully opened, the demand for charging in the market is fixed, and charging pile operators want to achieve long-term healthy development, essential to increase the country's efforts to promote new energy vehicles.
Ding Kun also admitted that several large charging pile operators are not good days, on the contrary, some small operators are thriving.
He took the construction as an example, Putian new energy construction process needs to be strictly in accordance with the standards, while many small operators as long as the normal operation of the equipment can be guaranteed, while the construction cost is also in addition to the initial investment in equipment in addition to another large investment. In addition, the late lease of parking spaces is also a hard cost.
Managing the land on which the piles are built is a major factor affecting profitability and is also recognized by the other two operators.
Zhang Sidong said, "from the cost point of view, charging pile is not a limited resource, but the land is a limited resource, can build charging pile place is a ceiling. Who is the holder of the land, who is more necessary to build charging pile business." In addition to service fees through the platform, CloudFastCharge is also exploring the SaaS+N operating model, with N standing for cooperation with other areas such as Youbao.
"The model of some large charging pile suppliers directly leads to their difficulty in realizing profitability." In Ding Rui's view, the correct service model for "local people serving local people", that is, property, local money, land to open the charging station to run their own is the most appropriate. The large operators will be land, capital and customers are concentrated in their own hands, in turn, and local people to form an antagonistic relationship, resulting in profitability difficulties.
Ding Rui also said that Smart Charge is changing the business model through technology. The large operators are under unified control and do not have a flexible price management model in the local area. Smart charging as a hardware and software provider, the system charges empowered to the operator, the operator according to their own situation can be fully competitive, in this regard, large operators are at a disadvantage.
Smart change in operational efficiency is also recognized by Star Charge, however, in Star Charge's view, in terms of equipment operation they are more efficient and more advantageous.
Zhao Ying said that through the construction of a digital platform for the entire life cycle of charging piles, Star Charge has dramatically improved the efficiency of operation and maintenance, with more than 90% of faults being diagnosed online, and even emergency stop buttons pressed unintentionally can be maintained automatically.
She cited the example of Taiyuan, where more than 3,300 charging piles are used at high frequency and high intensity, which would normally require 30 O&M engineers, but because Star's intelligent O&M platform is smart enough, it only takes four engineers to maintain the smooth operation of the 8,300 electric cabs in the area.
In addition, the charging pile development cycle is short, the need to regularly also upgrade maintenance is another cost investment.
It is understood that by June this year, the national grid will complete more than 40,000 public **** charging pile transformation task, and transformation and construction, expansion will also be the focus of this year's charging pile business.
4. Low investment threshold? Couple of wife store or become a trend
New infrastructure was mentioned to a new height, many charging pile enterprises also released at this time of investment ads, it is not difficult to find, many companies have emphasized one point, relative to other new infrastructure industry, charging pile investment threshold is very low.
In the car headline APP to the charging pile operators to seek confirmation, have also been confirmed. In their view, you can become a charging pile operator for as little as a few tens of thousands of dollars.
Zhang Sidong said that the better the development of new energy vehicles in the city, the more decentralized the main body of the charging station, according to the station-building data of the cloud fast charging. In addition to strong policy intervention, in Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Hangzhou and other cities with good development of new energy vehicles, the main body of the charging station is very decentralized, and a large number of "husband and wife stores" have emerged.
Zhang Sidong believes that this trend will continue until the end of the climbing period, the car pile ratio to reach a flat, charging pile industry into a saturated state in the stabilization period.
Similarly, Ding Rui said small investors with land and capital are also better suited to the charging pile sector.
Small Peng car in March 10, 2020 launched a period of ?1?months of super-charging partner limited incentive policy, according to Li Pengcheng, "received partner applications are not a lack of cooperation needs from the owners of the small Peng, is now actively promoting the cooperation of the application for the subsequent negotiation work." He also said that in the future, Xiaopeng Automobile will still continue to promote the super-charging partner mode, expanding the owner charging service touch points.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, there are those who believe that small operators have big risks in the late stage.
If the operators do not make money in the early stage, they will not be able to maintain and upgrade the equipment, making it inefficient and unusable, and also unable to integrate with the rapidly developing charging technology, these piles will gradually become abandoned piles and lose their value.
In addition, there are even some safety hazards, and safety and security is also a prerequisite for profitability.
It is understood that most of the causes of spontaneous combustion in new energy vehicles are related to the battery, and many spontaneous combustion incidents occur during the charging period.
Many authorities are not unaware of this problem, and have issued some relevant management measures, for example, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management issued the "Beijing Electric Vehicle Charging and Switching Facility Safety Management Measures for Public Use (for Trial Implementation)" to strengthen the safety management of Beijing's new energy vehicle charging and switching facilities, and to prevent the occurrence of safety accidents.
5. How can we avoid the emergence of "waste piles" on a large scale again?
New energy vehicles have "fraudulent subsidy" scandal, charging pile field also exists.
With state subsidies for the new energy vehicle industry shifting from buying cars to using them, many companies are building piles in order to get the subsidies, and the premise of building piles is no longer based on the premise of whether or not there are users using them, but rather, as long as there are conditions for construction, then the piles can be built. As a result, many charging piles are not designed to be "utilized" in their own right.
According to industry insiders, the number of "waste piles" is not a small number, and almost every house has them, many of which are barely utilized.
And the utilization rate is a key point of profitability of the charging station, if you want to achieve profitability, the charging pile utilization rate needs to be above a value (DC pile utilization rate is higher than 8% can be profitable). But according to relevant data, the national public **** pile utilization rate of about 4%, Beijing, Shanghai is as low as 1.3%. From the point of view of the utilization rate, it is obviously unable to support the enterprise to achieve profitability.
And the recent hot new infrastructure, will also set off a wave of charging pile construction boom. On the one hand, there is a big shortage of charging piles, on the other hand, there is no utilization rate of charging piles, how to solve this contradiction in the next charging pile construction, to avoid a large amount of waste of resources is a problem that should be paid attention to.
"Want to solve the effective distribution situation, the establishment of rules becomes more necessary and important." Zhang Sidong think so, at present the charging pile industry is relatively chaotic, the third party data organization data may not be accurate, some areas in the south of the utilization rate is still very objective. But the industry does need supply and demand sides to clarify the right direction and standards for future development, so that the use of resources more economically.
For the previously constructed waste and aging charging piles, Ding Kun suggested that the relevant authorities to strengthen the attention to safety and supervision. He said the relevant institutions can be commissioned to do some testing, complete the technical upgrading of equipment to ensure the safe use of equipment.
In the face of the opportunities brought by the new infrastructure, Li Pengcheng believes that it is particularly important to maintain a refined operation and network expansion strategy. In the future, Roc Motors will continue to fine-tune the operation of its self-operated and authorized supercharging stations to ensure the consistency of user experience and service quality, and establish a good user reputation.
Headline:
The acceleration of the progress of the "new infrastructure" will benefit the charging pile industry is indisputable, no matter the size of the operator, will directly benefit.
But due to the impact of the epidemic, the charging pile industry's operations fell 80%, the subsequent recovery is still uncertain.
More importantly, the charging pile industry is still in the initial stage of development, and a hundred boats are competing. The industry also lacks a relevant system of standardization and a mature profit model. At the same time, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the charging experience for new energy vehicle owners, and there are still concerns about charging in unfamiliar areas.
The acceleration of the "new infrastructure" will also further accelerate the industry's reshuffling process, which is likely to accelerate the merger between operators, with small operators moving closer to the center and central operators moving closer to the head, while also accelerating the iteration of high-quality companies and the elimination of unscrupulous ones.
For charging pile operating companies, want to stand firm in the market environment is not yet mature and not easy, both to seize the opportunity to occupy the market with the combination of science and technology, but also to avoid the waste of resources caused by the big dry fast, how to do the orderly development, but also need to grasp a good degree.
After all, by the time the new infrastructure winds up, what consumers need is a more convenient charging experience, not a patch of chicken feathers.
This article was written by the author of AutoNavi, and does not represent the viewpoint of AutoNavi.