New Energy Prospect (ID: xinnengyuanqianzhan) original.
Text 丨 Shen XVI.
Editor丨 and smooth.
How expensive is the German fast charging pile, the answer given by Feng Yu, the owner of Lynk & Co 01, is 1 per kilowatt-hour3 euros (about 10 yuan).
Since buying this plug-in hybrid car in April 2022, Feng Yu has suffered from charging, including both the "heartache" of high costs and the "tiredness" of saving money.
Feng Yu often takes a detour to IKEA on weekends, just to rub the free charging pile;In order to keep the charging fee low, Feng Yu will also set the alarm clock at 0:00 in the winter, drive to the remote charging pile, and sometimes have to queue for two hours.
Not only Fengyu, many consumers are complaining about charging piles in Europe and the United States. Slow charging is slow, and you can only charge 5% if you wait for an hour. The cost of a single charge of fast charging is unbearable.
In addition, the problem of few charging piles, bad piles, and dead piles in Europe and the United States also gives the majority of car owners a headache.
* Visual China.
A gap means a market. According to the Ali International Station Cross-border Index, in 2022, the overseas business opportunities of new energy vehicle charging piles will grow rapidly by 245%, and there will be nearly 3 times the demand space in the future.
Chinese charging pile companies seeking overseas markets have sprung up. According to Tianyancha data, in the past year, China has established 16,242 enterprises related to the export of charging piles.
However, even if there are few charging piles in overseas markets such as Europe and the United States, the road to sea for China's charging pile companies is not smooth.
According to public information, the annual vehicle pile ratio in Europe is respectively. 4, the United States is. 7, while China's vehicle-to-pile ratio from 2019 to 2022 is respectively. 3。Obviously, the construction progress of charging piles in Europe and the United States is lagging behind, and the ratio of vehicle piles is much higher than that in China.
Song Song, a new energy vehicle owner in Spain, said that it is rare to see public charging piles in the underground garage of supermarkets.
As for the reason for the lack of local charging piles, Song Song believes that most of the individual buildings in Spain do not have underground parking lots, so it is difficult for users to install charging piles. And the streets of Spain are faintly affecting the layout of charging piles. In many of Spain's old towns, the streets are so narrow that it is difficult to make room for public charging piles.
Feng Yu added to this view, "It is difficult for a new community with hundreds of households to have home charging piles. "The parking lot is a public area, and even the installation of private home charging stations must have the consent of all owners. Feng Yu was very troubled by this, "The possibility of this is very low in Germany, so it has not been done so far." ”
In addition, in Europe and the United States, finding a charging pile does not mean that it can be used. Tian Ye, a car owner in Los Angeles, said, "There are many electric cars in California, so the number of charging piles in California is not less than in other states." But there are many charging piles that are broken and the charging speed is also very slow. ”
* Visual China.
According to Jd.According to a POWER study in August, the failure rate of public charging piles in the United States is as high as 20%. Data shows that about 20% of public charging piles in the United States were installed before 2019, and the failure rate of charging piles is also increasing as time washes away the charging pile material.
After surveying more than 26,500 public charging stations in 50 states, the agency found that the causes of charging failures included software failures, payment processing errors, and vandalism.
It is worth mentioning that there is a huge disparity in the number of fast and slow charging piles in Europe and the United States.
In the U.S. market, AC slow charging piles account for about 80%, in the European market, AC charging piles of 22kW and below account for about 88%, and the proportion of ultra-fast DC charging piles with power levels higher than 150kW is only about 47%。
As one of the world's largest EV charging pile platforms, Charge Point operates more than 6Of the 80,000 charging piles, there are only about 1,500 Level 3 DC charging piles. In other words, there are only 2 Level 3 DC chargers out of 100 charge points.
Slow charging has become a "passive" choice for most people. Some American Tesla owners told New Energy Prospect that in the winter of 2023, they drove for two hours to find charging piles before they found four charge point charging piles, and they were all slow charging. After two hours of wind blowing in the winter, the battery was charged from 7% to 15%, and an hour of charging could not charge 5% of the battery. "I'd rather spend a little more than wait that long. ”
Fast charging does require an extra "100 million dollars". Ferdo, owner of the Polestar 2 in North America, said, "If you want to charge faster, you need to spend more." I had a full 75 degree battery and was paying $27 when I already had a membership discount(about RMB 194). ”
Although the cost of fast charging is high, for Fei Du, who loves self-driving travel, he hopes that the fast charging pile can be more laid out.
Obviously, China's charging pile companies see this business opportunity, and fast charging has become a key layout object in the charging piles that go to sea.
The new energy vehicles recently launched in Europe are basically high-voltage platform vehicles, which require fast charging or overcharging charging equipment. Therefore, overseas car owners urgently need a charging equipment that is compatible with the high-voltage platform. Zhang Xu, technical director of Shanghai Kuaibu New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., revealed to the new energy prospect at the China International Chain Promotion Expo.
According to incomplete statistics from the new energy outlook, many well-known manufacturers, including Wenjie, Xiaopeng, Ideal, GAC Aion, Porsche, Geneses, Lucid Motors, Hyundai, Great Wall, Dongfeng Lantu, Lotus, Jihu, AVATR, Hechuang, Zhiji, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, etc., have actively deployed high-voltage platforms. Chinese companies such as Green Energy Smart Charging, Shenghong Co., Ltd., Star Charging, Daotong Technology, and EN+ followed closely and went to the best DC charging piles in Europe and the United States.
How fast is the speed of the DC fast charging pile?If it is a Shenxing super rechargeable battery, it can be charged for 10 minutes, with a range of more than 400 kilometers, and can be charged to 80% SOC in 10 minutes at room temperature, and can be charged to 80% in 30 minutes in a -10 low temperature environment
* New energy forward-looking shooting.
For the environmental pressure of low temperature on charging piles and batteries, smart grid solution manufacturer Jicheng Electronics Zhang Shuai revealed to the new energy prospect that the company's solution is equipped with the function of remote detection of charging pile damage, and many charging pile companies have configured this function.
Digital energy systems are able to detect damage to charging stations. "We have an overseas operation headquarters to solve the problem of bad and dead charging piles in Europe and the United States. However, considering the high cost of manpower abroad, remote monitoring will also be carried out through digital energy systems. ”
As for the problem of expensive charging costs in Europe and the United States, He Yizhou, director of the market strategy department of Kuaibu, said that although overseas photovoltaics are relatively developed, overseas charging stations rely on mains. Enterprises need to apply for power distribution, and if the power distribution application is insufficient, it will also lead to problems such as voltage instability. However, due to the well-known reason of the lack of electricity in Europe and the United States, it is difficult to apply for power distribution overseas.
The cost of fast charging of overseas charging piles remains high, and in essence, the electricity fee is still expensive. Liao Yangyong, a researcher at Xiaguang Society, said that electricity is an energy industry like fuel oil, but Europe's energy transition has encountered problems, and the poor reliability of the power grid has also limited the development of charging. But the problem of energy infrastructure is too big for one or two parties to solve.
Although the problem of power shortage is difficult to solve fundamentally, it can also achieve "curve salvation" through photovoltaics. According to the rough calculation of He Zhou, a domestic charging gun is about to be charged more than 200 degrees a day, and 10 guns are 2000 degrees, which is equivalent to 3000 square meters of photovoltaic power generation in a day, and the photovoltaic canopy area of the charging station is definitely not enough.
However, the high electricity prices in Europe and the United States have also given room for "arbitrage" of photovoltaic energy storage. Europe and the United States implement peak-to-valley electricity prices, and the electricity prices are different at different times. The integration of photovoltaic storage and charging can allow photovoltaic power to be stored first and then used when the unit price is high, so as to realize the economic benefits of photovoltaic energy storage.
He Yizhou said, "The difference in electricity prices in each region is different, so it is difficult to calculate the income of arbitrage, but it can definitely be arbitraged." "It is worth mentioning that the integration of optical storage, charging and inspection can solve the problem of voltage instability by the way.
In addition, Kuaibu's charging pile is equipped with a digital energy system. Under the high-speed charging speed of overcharging and fast charging, the entire power grid has to bear extremely high load response requirements. Especially when charging at the same time, photovoltaic energy storage is required to play the role of peak regulation and frequency regulation.
Yuan Shuai, deputy secretary-general of Zhongguancun Internet of Things Industry Alliance and executive director of the high-quality development promotion project of specialized, special and new enterprises, said to New Energy ProspectsThe market prospect of this technical route is broad, but there are also some challenges. For example, the initial investment cost is high, the technical complexity is difficult, the maintenance and management is difficult, and the geographical constraints are limited
Fast charging, slow charging, and the integration of optical storage, charging and inspection products have been "in place", but how can China's charging piles realize the dream of going to sea?
The difficulty of charging piles going to sea starts with battery certification
The main industry standards that need to be paid attention to in the industry are European standard CE certification and American standard UL certification. CE certification is compulsory certification, the certification cycle is 1-2 months, the main applicable area is the EU member states, the certification cost is about hundreds of thousands of yuan;UL certification is one of the main certification standards for charging pile products to enter the U.S. market, with a certification cycle of about 6 months and a cost of up to millions of yuan.
In addition, the interface standards of charging piles in different countries and regions are also different.
If you want to make overseas charging piles, you must re-establish the project, rather than simply changing the domestic ones. He Yizhou said that to re-establish the project to do research and development, it is necessary to re-develop the interface. "In many parts of Europe, protective interfaces are installed, and the interfaces are not exactly the same. So in order to better adapt, we also need to study a local policy. ”
The second difficulty in going to sea is channel construction.
According to MarketUS, Aerovironment, ABB, BP and other companies have long-term strategic cooperative relations with downstream operators or car companies, and have built significant customer barriers in overseas markets. China's charging piles do not have a brand advantage, and the lack of brand power has become one of the difficulties for most manufacturers to break through.
Many Chinese manufacturers have found another way to develop customers through channels such as Chain Expo, CCPIT, and Chamber of Commerce. According to the staff of the 17th Italian International Charging Pile Exhibition in 2024, Chinese companies such as ABB, Daotong Technology New Energy, Xiamen Jiainte Technology, Xiankong, Nanjing Xinchi and other Chinese companies will participate in the exhibition.
The third step to go to sea is naturally service。Taking Ningbo Yiwei New Energy Technology, which mainly has the best AC charging piles, charging guns, gun wires and other accessories, as an example, although the company's products are mainly exported to Europe, America and Southeast Asia, it is not responsible for overseas after-sales.
Wen Zhou, a salesperson at the company, said, "So far, the products we export have not been damaged. For products with problems within the warranty, the domestic freight and maintenance costs are borne by the factory, but those to foreign countries are not covered. ”
The reason why slow charging piles do not cover after-sales is mainly because the product is too simple. Ni Feng, deputy secretary-general of the Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities Standardization Committee, previously revealed that there are some manufacturers that make connectors, and it is easy to sell hundreds of millions of such products every year. "The user can connect the wire himself, hang it on the wall, and it can be used without any maintenance. ”
* Visual China.
But for DC charging piles, service is more important. Ni Feng believes that DC fast charging equipment has problems such as installation, commissioning, and maintenance, and needs localized services。"Very few chargers with more power are completely maintenance-free, and most require some installation or commissioning. ”
However, the cost of building an operational team in Europe and the United States is not low. According to several electricians who have installed charging piles in the United States, the cost of a single installation alone can sometimes be as high as 1,500 yuan. If photovoltaic is included, the installation fee will be further increased to 3,000 yuan.
Some companies solve this problem by acquiring local companies, but not all of them are able to do so. He Yizhou revealed, "After the customer places an order, we will ship it quickly within a few months to help them install it and be able to carry out an operation." According to the case of Kuaibu's overseas cooperation, overseas customers not only value quality, but also focus on the ability to continue operation and maintenance overseas. ”
There is no doubt that there is still a long way to go when it comes to continuing operations. This obviously also constitutes the tone of China's charging piles going to sea.
Title image and internal distribution map** in Visual China.
Song Song, Fei Du, Feng Yu, and Wen Zhou are pseudonyms in the article.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice to any person.