The Challenges And Opportunities of EV Chargers in China

In recent years, China's charging infrastructure has developed rapidly, building the charging infrastructure system with the largest number, the widest service range and the most complete types in the world.

By the end of October 2023, there were 7.95 million charging piles in China, including more than 2.5 million public charging piles, which strongly supported the promotion and application of new energy vehicles in China.

From January to October 2023, the domestic retail sales of pure electric passenger vehicles will be 4 million, and 730,000 public piles and 2.02 million private piles will be built.

Recently, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, said that according to the calculation of 1 public pile =3 private piles, the pile ratio of pure electric vehicles in China's incremental market in 2023 has reached 11, several times ahead of other countries in the world. However, the charging capacity of 2.52 million public charging piles was 1.1 billion degrees from January to October, the average charging capacity of public piles from January to October was 424 degrees, and the monthly average was 42 degrees / public pile. Such charging utilization rate is difficult to make profits. At present, there are still some problems in the charging infrastructure, such as inadequate layout, unreasonable structure, backward technology of old charging piles, unbalanced service, and unstandardized operation.

Cui Dongshu believes that the result of the moderate advanced development of charging piles is that the utilization rate is insufficient, and the operation of charging facilities is bound to suffer an overall loss. At present, the incremental ratio of pure electric passenger cars to public charging piles is 31, while the charging system of pure electric passenger cars is 31, which is difficult for such a ratio to make a profit.

"From the perspective of subdivision function, the charging utilization rate of public pile is three times that of private pile, that is, the relationship between 31, so the sales ratio of charging facilities and pure electric vehicles reaches 1.0, and the relationship is basically 11. Due to the increase in the number of installed piles, the increment of vehicle pile ratio has reached a relatively reasonable level of 11."Cui Dongshu said.

Based on the above background, Cui Dongtree advice, focus on the future of new energy vehicles, especially the trend of rapid growth of electric vehicles, need to further build high quality charging infrastructure system, better meet the people to purchase and use new energy vehicles, help promote transportation green low carbon transformation and modern infrastructure system construction.

The situation of public charging stations varies greatly, mainly due to the large scale of charging stations in developed cities. Charging stations of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Beijing are well built.

In addition, the data shows that the operator's head effect is obvious. At present, the development scale of DC charging pile is large, and the head operators have strong performance. Charging piles are subdivided into dc pile (fast charging) and AC pile (slow charging). DC charging piles have the characteristics of high voltage, high power and fast charging, and have higher requirements for the power grid. They are usually built in expressway service areas, buses and other places, so the number is small, accounting for about 20%. AC charging piles are relatively easy to install, usually owned by private owners, so they are large in number and widely distributed, accounting for more than 80%. From the perspective of technology development trend, DC pile gradually moves towards the development direction of high power.

Cui Dongshu pointed out that the national new energy development plan clearly put forward that the slow charging of private piles is the development trend, accounting for more than 90%, and the current slow development of private piles affects the popularization of electric vehicles.

According to the survey, the satisfaction of users of self-owned charging piles (charging pile adequacy, layout rationality, charging price, settlement accuracy, etc.) is higher than that of other respondents."From January to October 2023, the domestic retail sales of pure electric passenger vehicles will be 4 million, and 730,000 public piles and 2.02 million private piles will be built. In the domestic retail scale of pure electric passenger vehicles, if the public charging pile is compared with the user service number of 11, the vehicle pile ratio is 1.51, and the charging pile is relatively sufficient. Here to split out of the plug-in mixed charging less particularity. That is, the Shanghai model, only burning oil without charging the demand characteristics."Cui Dongshu said.

Expert proposes, First of all, we need to strengthen the technological innovation and industrial chain integration of charging and changing facilities, Improve the production efficiency and quality level, Adapting to the challenges brought about by the rapid development of global markets and policy evolution; Secondly, Accelerate the unification of various standards of the industrial chain, Strengthen the exploration and scenario application of charging and changing mode, Let charging operators, power grid companies, battery companies, and energy operators fully explore industrial cooperation, Dig deep into the value capacity of the whole industry chain, To promote the value upgrading of the whole industrial chain; last but not the least, Need to improve the quality of charging and changing service, Encourage industries to establish differentiated service systems, Local governments should establish differentiated subsidy policies for charging facilities, On the principle of "supporting the best and supporting the strong", To guide the charging and changing industry to provide users with more efficient, convenient and green energy supply services.

Thanks to: JACCPCM sources: Charging Station Vision