The daily utilization rate is low and the slow charging rate is high. Who made the "zombie" charging pile for new energy vehicles?
Sales of new energy vehicles are constantly hitting new highs, and the number of charging piles is also rising.
But with it, there are also "zombie piles" that can be seen everywhere in the city.
Recently, Mr. Wang, a car owner in Shanghai, reported to The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter that he was unable to use the charging pile, unable to return the pre-charged value, and lost the operating company when using the charging pile named "Lehua Charging". Links and other issues.
"In the past, there were quite a lot of electric vehicles in the parking spaces here. Every day there were cars coming to charge them, and they stopped suddenly for some reason."
If in the past year, a charging station has not had any charging behavior, then the charging piles are called "zombie piles".
In the case of Mr. Wang mentioned above, these unusable charging piles are suspected "zombie piles."
According to data recently obtained by the reporter of The Paper (www.thepaper.cn), there are currently about 110,000 public charging piles and special charging piles in Shanghai, and about 27% are suspected "zombie piles", of which time-sharing leases and other special charging piles Piles accounted for more than half.
So, why did these "zombie piles" come from?
Who is making the "zombie pile"?
How will the future supervision and disposal be carried out?
Public DC charging piles have low daily utilization rate and high losses
In the park where Mr. Wang’s company is located, a reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) saw that dozens of Lehua charging stations have been powered off, and most of the parking spaces are fuel vehicles.
The reporter tried to dial the official 400 phone number of Lehua Charging for many times, but no one answered.
The “Leroy Charging WeChat Mini Program” used by Mr. Wang for top-up and payment has also shown “Service Suspended”.
At several Lehua charging outlets in Shanghai's Pudong New Area and Jiading District, the reporter found that the charging piles of the brand were in an unusable state, and the relevant persons in charge of the park also stated that they could not get in touch with the charging pile operators.
Sky Eye Check shows that this brand of charging pile is operated by Shanghai Lehua Network Technology Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 50 million yuan.
In February 2021, the company added "electric vehicle charging infrastructure operation; new energy vehicle replacement facility sales" and other related content in the business scope change.
Mr. Wang told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter, “Relevant departments have checked the company’s registration place, but this is a virtual registered address. They suggest that car owners collectively report to the police.” Then the reporter contacted 12345 citizens on this issue. The hotline got the same answer as Mr. Wang.
On multiple consumer complaint platforms, you can find many complaints about the unavailability of public charging piles or suspected operator runaway incidents.
A person in charge of the charging pile company's local promotion told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter, "As far as I know, these normal operating (charging pile brand) companies on the market are basically still in the stage of losing money. "
A Shanghai-based new energy car owner, Ms. Yuan, told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter, “I usually park my car in a shopping mall to charge when I go to work. Over the years, the charging piles in the parking lot have been replaced by five or six brands. , I don’t know how many apps have been downloaded in the mobile phone."
According to data from Industrial Securities, from 2016 to 2020, the annual registration growth rate of charging pile-related companies in my country will be more than 30%.
In 2020, the number of new charging pile-related companies will exceed 29,000, which is nearly 6 times that of 2015.
According to industrial and commercial registration data, as of May 25, 2021, my country has added 21,000 charging pile-related companies in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 159%.
According to data disclosed by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transportation, the annual charging capacity of public piles in Shanghai has continued to leapfrog, with 200 million kWh in 2018, 402 million kWh in 2019, and 606 million kWh in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 50%.
The admission of many players means that the competition has accelerated sharply.
Since the beginning of this year, charging pile operators in Shenzhen, Shandong and other places have even been involved in the price war of "one yuan for a car".
In September 2016, Shanghai Electrical Apparatus Research Institute (Group) Co., Ltd. was entrusted by Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, Shanghai Transportation Commission, Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau and other departments to undertake the construction of "Shanghai Municipal Electric Level platform", the platform was officially launched on December 30, 2016, named "Lianlian Charging".
Relevant departments require that all public charging piles in Shanghai must be connected to "Lianlian Charging" in accordance with regulations.
Tang Xiaodong, the executive deputy general manager of "Lianlian Charging", has calculated an account for the paper reporter (www.thepaper.cn): At present, among the public charging piles, the ones that consumers use more are DC fast charging piles. The total investment for pile filling plus construction cost is about 100,000 yuan.
Taking the subsidy into account, the daily charging capacity of a single pile is more than 100 degrees, and this station can achieve a break-even operation; charging 200 degrees per day, the station can basically pay back within 3-5 years; charging up to 300 degrees per day, Only then can the investment be recovered within 3 years.
Taking Shanghai as an example, the average daily utilization rate of a single public DC pile in Shanghai is about 4%, which is equivalent to using about 1 hour and 50 kilowatt-hours of electricity a day.
In other words, the operating companies as a whole are in a state of loss.
"Different regions have different statistical methods for the utilization rate. In some cities, the utilization rate of charging piles is as high as tens of percent. This is actually due to the relatively wide statistical caliber. 100% utilization rate." Tang Xiaodong said, "Under the same measurement standard, the utilization rate of charging piles in Shanghai is actually at a high level."
The person in charge of the aforementioned charging pile company said, “Large companies are relatively better, small companies cannot afford to burn, and most of them can’t do fine operations. It’s commonplace to make ends meet or even close down. The unusable piles we usually encounter are really There are not many bad ones. In fact, most of them are left behind by the enterprise's operation. The cost of demolition is almost equivalent to the cost of the equipment. Of course, the operator will not spend any more money to remove these piles."
Adjust the subsidy policy to plug the loopholes of "fraud and make up"
In addition to operating companies that have difficulty in operating and closed down, some bad companies that cheat to make up for are also the culprits for creating "zombie piles."
The person in charge of the above-mentioned charging pile enterprise said to the reporter of The Paper (www.thepaper.cn), “Shanghai used to issue pile subsidies, but now most other provinces and cities also provide pile subsidies. You can get a government subsidy if you set up a charging pile. So many companies and brands of all kinds have been set up in a short period of time. Some pile companies can't wait to plug the piles all over Shanghai."
"Rapid growth in numbers is not a problem," the person in charge added. "The problem is that many pile companies install slow charging piles, and some have never even passed electricity."
Tang Xiaodong told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter that the barriers to entry for the operation of public charging piles are not high, and enterprises need to go to the National Development and Reform Commission website for filing before installing charging piles, without acceptance; if the charging piles are supporting facilities for parking lots, Check and accept together with the parking lot.
He mentioned that at the stage when Shanghai provided equipment subsidies to operating companies, some companies did have bad motives and even cheated compensation by falsifying data.
For this type of problem, the relevant management departments have been aware of and have taken measures.
Tang Xiaodong introduced that at present, the focus of subsidies for public charging piles in Shanghai has changed from equipment subsidies to operating subsidies. Stations and other places) total only 16,000, and now it has grown to 110,000. Every day, more than 20,000 transactions are generated on the municipal platform. In addition, the background statistics of the municipal platform show that the ratio of vehicles to piles in Shanghai It has reached 1.2:1, that is, every 1.2 vehicles have 1 charging pile (including household charging piles), which can basically meet the demand in terms of quantity. When the quantity increases, we will pay more attention to operational issues."
Since 2016, Shanghai has begun to issue charging equipment subsidies and charging operation subsidies to charging facility operators.
After the charging pile is completed, the operating company can receive a one-time equipment subsidy equivalent to 30% of the equipment purchase cost.
During the operation period, depending on the nature of the operation, the operating company can obtain the corresponding subsidy for kilowatt-hours.
Among them, the public charging piles have 2 angles of electricity per kilowatt-hour (the roof is capped for 1,000 hours per year), and the dedicated piles are 1 angle per kilowatt-hour of electricity (the cap is capped for 2000 hours per year).
In May 2020, the "Shanghai Interim Measures for Promoting the Orderly Development of Interconnection and Interconnection of Electric Vehicle Charging (Replacement) Facilities" (hereinafter referred to as "Measures") was promulgated.
The "Measures" canceled the original equipment subsidies, and enterprises no longer enjoy the 30% equipment subsidies provided by the Shanghai Municipal Government for the construction of public charging piles (except for special provisions such as taxi demonstration stations and demonstration communities).
The loopholes of some companies defrauding equipment subsidies have also been blocked.
At the same time, the "Measures" stipulates a stepped subsidy policy for kilowatt-hours: all public charging piles that meet the scoring standard, that is, 60 points are entitled to a subsidy of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour; those with a score of 75 and above can receive a subsidy of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. ; 85 points and above can receive a subsidy of 8 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, in order to guide operating companies to improve service levels and improve the experience of car owners.
20% charging piles bear 90% of the charging capacity
Some of the "zombie piles" are leftover problems caused by poor management of operating companies, and some are related to the development of battery life.
Chuancai Securities stated that starting from 2013, my country's pure electric passenger vehicle subsidy amount began to be linked to the cruising range, and the cruising range requirements are getting higher and higher.
Since 2016, subsidies for pure electric passenger vehicles with a range of 100 kilometers and 150 kilometers have been gradually cancelled, and subsidies for vehicles with a range of less than 300 kilometers have declined, while subsidies for models with a range of more than 300 kilometers have not decreased but increased.
With the guidance of subsidy policies and the rapid development of battery technology in recent years, electric vehicles with long cruising range have gradually become the mainstream.
The charging piles installed a few years ago have long been unable to meet the charging needs of car owners.
Tang Xiaodong said, “The current battery capacity of common vehicles in Shanghai is at least 50 kWh, and better ones will reach 70 to 100 kWh. Take a 70-kWh vehicle as an example, if you use a common 7kWh slow charging pile to charge, It takes 10 hours to fully charge, and it’s almost impossible for car owners to wait that long in a public place."
According to the background data of "Lianlian Charging", 80% of public charging piles in Shanghai are AC slow charging piles and 20% are DC fast charging piles.
However, more than 90% of the charging capacity comes from these 20% DC fast charging piles.
On August 18, 2021, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission issued the "Notice of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission on Regulating the Installation of Charging Facilities in Parking Lots (Gardages)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), requiring all district traffic management departments, Lianlian Charging, and various charging facilities. Power swap facility operating companies and public parking lot (garage) operating companies have strengthened the governance of "zombie piles" and further increased the proportion of fast charging facilities.
What is worth noting in the "Notice" is that for newly-built public parking lots (garages), charging facilities can be checked and accepted according to the total power of the equipment.
In the past, according to the requirements of the Central Housing and Construction Commission, new public parking lots (garages) should be equipped with 10% charging parking spaces, that is, at least 100 7kWh AC slow charging piles should be installed in 1,000 parking spaces.
In the future, based on power conversion, as long as the overall installed capacity reaches 700kWh.
Generally speaking, 6 sets of DC dual gun quick charging piles can meet the requirements, the utilization rate of charging piles will be higher, and the problem of zombie piles will gradually be alleviated.
According to Tang Xiaodong, the promotion of the renovation of existing old piles has also been taken into consideration by relevant departments.
The platform will regularly hand over the data of suspected zombie piles in the background to the Shanghai Transportation Committee. The transportation committee will communicate with the warehouse. For charging piles that are really unable to operate, the transportation committee will take the lead to find a company with operational capabilities to delist and transform the old piles. , Put it back into use.
"In terms of the construction of charging piles, Shanghai is in the forefront of the country. If you go fast, you will definitely encounter various problems before other regions," Tang Xiaodong said. "Especially the rapid development of new energy vehicles, related policies will be adjusted accordingly. There is a certain degree of lag. At present, departments including the Transportation Commission and the Development and Reform Commission have been aware of the existence of various problems, and related policies are also being continuously promoted."
The Paper News trainee reporter Wu Yuli