Electric bicycles: "Going upstairs" is illegal, how do I charge downstairs?
Experts suggest that the installation of electric bicycle charging equipment be included in the old community renovation plan
Our reporter Wang Hui
Nowadays, electric bicycles have become one of the main transportation modes for residents due to their advantages of convenience, environmental protection and economy.
According to the data provided by the China Bicycle Association, in recent years, the annual sales of electric bicycles in my country have exceeded 30 million, and the social ownership is close to 300 million.
In May of this year, an electric bicycle caught fire in the elevator of a community in Chengdu, causing injuries to five people, including a five-month-old baby.
After the incident, it quickly became a hot topic on the Internet and attracted the attention of netizens. How to shut the tragedy out of the building and how to charge and use electric vehicles safely and effectively became the focus of discussion from all walks of life.
The reporter's survey found that when electric bicycle charging piles, which are necessary supporting facilities, enter the community, some communities require that the company’s electricity price settlement costs even account for more than 50% of the company’s operating costs. Problems such as "entry fees" and "high electricity prices" make electric bicycles The promotion of charging piles has encountered obstacles, and residents are caught in the dilemma of "two-side blocking" of "cars going upstairs illegally" and "nowhere to charge downstairs".
E-bikes "going upstairs" are at high risk, and the ban on "going upstairs" is in vain
During the interview, the reporter found that although fire safety reminders prohibiting charging of electric bicycles in the buildings are posted in front of many residential buildings, it is still normal for residents to push upstairs.
For the convenience of charging, some residents use charging plugs to connect to an "extended" charging cable from the floor where they live, and extend it downstairs to charge electric bicycles and even electric cars.
With the increase of rain in summer, charging plugs that are too late to be recycled are extremely conductive in the rain, increasing the risk of electric shock for residents.
Regarding the “prohibition of going upstairs with carts” regulations, some residents are also helpless. “The community where they live does not provide equipment for charging electric vehicles. Some models of electric vehicles are designed with batteries connected to the vehicle. Can push home to recharge."
When visiting certain communities in Xiqing District, Tianjin, it is common for residents to push up and down the stairs every morning and evening when they are off work. When the reporter asked if he was aware of the “prohibition of pushing upstairs”, a resident said : "I saw it when I checked the news on my mobile phone, but I didn't have a place to recharge my phone without going upstairs and going home.
Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Management issued the "Regulations on Fire Safety Management of High-Rise Civil Buildings", which will come into effect on August 1, 2021.
Regarding the issue of "parking and discharging bottle cars in corridors", which is of general concern to the society, it is clearly prohibited to park or charge electric bicycles in public halls, evacuation walkways, stairwells, and safety exits of high-rise civil buildings.
"Common electric vehicle fires in life are mostly caused by the battery's thermal runaway." Xiao Bing, president of the Central Research Institute of Emma Technology Group, said that there are currently some secondary recycled and refurbished electric bicycle batteries on the market, which are relatively easy to cause. The accident happened.
In addition, users who are mainly takeaway riders and personnel in the express delivery industry will actually overload their vehicles in order to increase the delivery volume. Some people will also modify the controllers of the electric bicycles to achieve speed-up and other purposes, which are bound to increase. The burden of the vehicle battery leads to "thermal runaway" in the battery.
"In the fire inspection, there are indeed illegal activities such as'flight charging on stairs, indoor charging, and random parking of electric vehicles in corridors.' It is very easy to cause fires." Liu Shengyang, assistant engineer of the fire rescue detachment of Heping District, Tianjin, said. A video of the explosion of an electric car in an elevator shows that reports of electric cars entering the elevator and going upstairs to the house have surged.
According to the current laws and regulations, there is no clear provision for this phenomenon, and the fire department cannot handle the situation of electric vehicles entering the elevator or entering the house.
Liu Shengyang believes that in order to solve the problem of charging the electric vehicles of community residents, only by further promoting the installation and use of intelligent terminal equipment such as smart charging piles and elevator sensor alarms can the problem of electric vehicles entering buildings and households be solved from the root.
There are many problems in not "going upstairs", and the residents of property companies "headaches"
The reporter found that in areas where relevant government departments are actively taking the lead in coordinating, the development of electric bicycle charging equipment into the community has been relatively smooth.
Not long ago, the Tianjin Municipal Work Safety Commission Office issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Fire Safety Management of Electric Bicycles", requiring relevant departments to supervise and urge property service companies to build centralized parking places for electric bicycles and have regular charging, automatic power off, fault alarms, etc. Functional intelligent and safe charging facilities improve the safety management level of electric bicycles with technical preventive measures.
Liu Shengyang introduced that under the joint coordination of the Heping District Government and the fire department, property insurance and government rescue insurance have been provided for 155 carports on 6 streets in the area. Carports, etc. provide protection.
"At present, 750 charging piles have been initially built in Tianjin, serving more than 6,000 residents. With the development of smart and safe communities, charging piles are also under continuous construction." Liu Jiqing, Marketing Director, Energy Department, Tianjin Branch, China Tower The reporter told the reporter that based on the national standard electric vehicle charging requirements, the company is relying on its property resources all over the country and a visual, manageable and controllable intelligent monitoring platform to centrally deploy low-speed electric vehicle charging piles in the community. Set of effective comprehensive solutions for smart and safe communities.
Li Jian, the sales director of Wan Zhao (Tianjin) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said that under the promotion of the local government, the company is currently adopting the form of free installation in the community to promote electric bicycle charging piles, which has achieved a good degree of community cooperation and has been favored by residents. welcome.
During the interview, some companies also revealed another problem. When promoting charging pile equipment into the community, the company encountered the "entry fee" set by some properties. "Some community properties require a one-time settlement, while others require management. The name of the fee is paid monthly." A person in charge of a charging pile company said.
After visiting a number of charging pile companies, the reporter calculated such an account: the electric bicycle charging piles configured in various communities have slightly different ways of drawing electricity, mainly using the "civilian electricity + commercial electricity" model.
Therefore, the charging price for residents using charging piles is about 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour of electricity, which includes the basic electricity price of about 0.5 to 1.2 yuan and the corresponding enterprise equipment operation and maintenance costs.
Therefore, in actual settlement, affected by the community's tiered electricity price, some properties will purchase electricity from the electric power department at the average residential electricity price of 0.49 yuan to 0.5 yuan, and then settle the electricity bill with the charging pile company at a price of about 0.8 yuan to 1.2 yuan. "This means that the highest settlement price per kilowatt-hour may exceed 50% of the company's revenue per kilowatt-hour." said a person in charge of an electric vehicle charging pile enterprise.
The reporter then called the power department, and a staff member said that the electricity fee in the community is directly settled by the power department and the property. The electricity fee that the charging pile enterprise needs to pay after entering the community is solved by the docking between the enterprise and the property department.
Some people questioned whether some community properties acted as "middlemen" between power companies and charging pile enterprises?
Some property-related persons in charge said that most of the electricity currently provided to enterprises is for commercial use, about 1 yuan. For enterprises' desire to lower electricity prices or grant electricity subsidies, they hope that relevant departments will issue relevant policies to coordinate.
Li Jian believes that if the cost of the basic electricity price can be reduced, it can be used to transfer profits to the residents, and the reduction of charging costs will directly increase the enthusiasm of residents to use charging piles.
In addition, in the process of promoting charging pile equipment into the community, some companies said that they also encountered resistance from some residents in old communities.
In many old communities, fixed parking spaces for private cars are often "difficult to find", and residents rely on "hand speed" to find parking spaces when they go home.
During the interview, some residents raised their concerns to reporters. The installation of electric bicycle sheds is bound to increase the difficulty for them to "grab parking spaces".
There are also residents who worry that the newly built bicycle shed is closer to their floors. In the event of a fire, it may affect the safety of low-floor residents.
The old community may become the main place for electric vehicle charging piles, and many efforts are still needed to resolve the charging problem
According to a report released in May last year by the Shell Research Institute, a research institution on the Internet and stock housing market, according to the standards of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, there are 170,000 old communities that need to be renovated across the country, involving a construction area of 4 billion square meters.
In most of the old communities, electric bicycles are often more popular among residents due to shortage of parking spaces and other reasons.
According to the 2020 data provided by the Tianjin Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the residential communities in the built-up areas of Tianjin that have not implemented professional property management account for about 77% of the residential communities in the built-up areas of the municipality. If calculated by the construction area, they account for about 54 %.
The daily property management of these old communities is often jointly responsible by the Civil Affairs Bureau, the street and other departments, which increases the difficulty of communication and coordination for charging pile companies in the community to a certain extent.
Tianjin has issued the "Tianjin Community Property Management Measures" in 2019. During the interview, the reporter found that the community party organization is playing an active role in the decision-making on issues such as site selection, construction, and funding preparation for centralized parking sites for electric bicycles in the community. .
In Hongqiao District of Tianjin City, the community party organization led by the community to help the community solve the "difficulty" of electric bicycle charging piles into the community has achieved initial results.
According to Chen Kai, Secretary of the Party Committee of Heyuan Street and Yuanjiayuan Community in Hongqiao District, Tianjin, under the coordination of the community party committee, the site selection and construction of carports for electric bicycle charging have been successfully completed. The electric power department has also installed electric meters for convenient carports. Provided residents with cheaper "parity electricity", about 0.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour of electricity.
Shen Hongna of the Maintenance Fund Utilization Department of Tianjin Housing and Urban-Rural Insurance Center said that in order to better solve the problem of difficult construction of community charging piles, it is an effective way to actively explore the use of community housing maintenance funds.
In accordance with the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, the community can apply for the use of special housing maintenance funds to solve this problem after collecting the opinions of all residents and submitting it to the relevant competent authority for approval.
Many experts suggested that the next step should include the installation of electric bicycle charging equipment into the old community renovation plan.