Let the new energy vehicle bid farewell to the "difficulty of charging", and it is better to | the Beijing News editorial sooner rather than later

▲A basement charging station in Beijing. Beijing News shell financial reporter Bai Haotian photographed

According to CCTV, due to the frequent charging of new energy vehicles in winter, there is a phenomenon that "public charging piles basically rely on 'grabbing', and car owners get up at four o'clock in the morning to grab charging piles".

At the same time, statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that in the first three quarters of this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 6.78 million, and the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in the country was 2.385 million units; while from January to November, the sales of new energy vehicles were 2.99 million units, and their promotion and application have entered the fast lane, but the increase in national charging infrastructure is only 704,000 units, which is obviously relatively lagging behind.

Especially in the winter when the demand for charging is rising, this problem becomes more prominent. This is undoubtedly a reminder that the supporting infrastructure construction of new energy vehicles must catch up.

In the initial stage of the promotion and application of new energy vehicles, there is a certain lag in the construction of related infrastructure, which has its objective reasons. However, at present, the number of new energy vehicles in China is relatively large, and the construction progress of supporting infrastructure represented by charging piles has the tendency to expand with the growth rate of new energy vehicles, which must arouse vigilance.

On the one hand, millions of new energy vehicle owners face the "difficulty of charging" or the inconvenience of charging, which is a real problem of people's livelihood, which is related to the life experience of countless car owners and families, and must be paid attention to; on the other hand, when the ownership of new energy vehicles reaches a certain foundation, the most basic problems such as charging can still not be solved, which will inevitably affect consumer expectations and confidence in the popularization of new energy vehicles.

Therefore, whether from the perspective of people's livelihood, or from the perspective of expanding consumption and promoting the development of related industries, it is better to accelerate the construction of supporting infrastructure for new energy vehicles. Moreover, there is no lack of policy guidance and support in this regard.

Just on December 14, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued a relevant notice to re-emphasize the acceleration of the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles and substations. As early as October 2015, the State Council also clarified the construction principle of "moderately advanced" charging infrastructure in the relevant guidance. However, compared with reality, the relevant construction not only failed to be "ahead of the curve", but also a bit "dragged its feet".

To alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of new energy vehicle charging facilities, the improvement of increment and stock is indispensable. In terms of increment, it is necessary to speed up the pace of new construction, so that the popularization speed of supporting infrastructure is greater than the popularization speed of new energy vehicles, so as to ensure that the user experience of car owners is continuously improved, and further enhance the recognition of new energy vehicles by society.

Specifically, it is necessary to accelerate the opening up of the mechanisms and policy obstacles faced by the construction of supporting infrastructure. For example, the constraints in power supply, space allocation, management coordination, planning and design, etc., need to be resolved in a targeted manner.

In fact, in 2014, the relevant guidance issued by the General Office of the State Council has proposed to formulate and implement the development plan for new energy vehicle charging facilities, clearly incorporate its construction into the overall urban planning, improve relevant land use policies and electricity price policies, encourage public places to accelerate the construction of internal parking lot charging facilities, and local governments to increase corresponding support. The formulation and implementation of these policies should be more urgent and truly create better conditions for the popularization of charging piles.

The improvement in stock is mainly reflected in the improvement of the layout rationality of the charging pile construction and the adaptability of the charging equipment. The data shows that as of September 2021, the ratio of vehicle piles in China is about 3:1, but the average utilization rate of the entire public charging pile is less than 10%, mainly because of the uneven distribution.

This also requires the construction of charging piles, both to emphasize quantity, but also not to ignore the "quality", truly demand-oriented, improve the layout rationality and use efficiency.

The popularity of new energy vehicles has entered the "fast lane", but the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging piles cannot stay in the "slow lane" for a long time. Only when the two are truly matched can we improve the society's sense of experience in the use of new energy vehicles, and can also help eliminate consumer concerns and promote "blockages".

Because of the arrival of winter, this problem has once again aroused concern, but to solve this problem, we cannot only think about it in winter. In the era of traditional automobiles, there is a "parking difficulty", and the era of new energy vehicles can no longer have "charging difficulties".

Edit | Ma Xiaolong

Proofreading | Liu Yue