If you want to use an idiom to define the global new energy vehicle market in 2021, I think the most appropriate one must be "overwhelming". In terms of data, China's annual sales of new energy vehicles broke through 3 million, production and sales led the world for 6 consecutive years, and the annual market penetration rate also exceeded 15%. The European and American markets are not far behind, each setting a new record high, and public data shows that from January to November, Europe sold 985,000 pure electric vehicles, an increase of 77.6% year-on-year. U.S. pure electric vehicle sales from January to October were 372,000 units, up 90.3% year-on-year. A series of data means that the growth momentum of new energy vehicles is sweeping the world. But even if the new energy vehicle market has spent the booming 2021, we can still see the discussion of "whether to buy an electric car" everywhere on the Internet. Such a magical reality, what is the problem?
Replenishment, a new energy vehicle can not avoid the problem
For a new energy vehicle owner, there are no more than three channels for daily energy replenishment. One is to look for public charging piles outside, one is to use private piles at the doorstep, and one is the power exchange mode, the first two are the current mainstream new energy vehicle energy supply channels, the latter is a niche, this article will not be discussed.
In China, is it easy to charge outside? According to data from the Charging Alliance, as of November 2021, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in the country was 2.385 million units, an increase of 55% year-on-year, and the vehicle-to-pile ratio was about 3:1. That is to say, every 3 new energy vehicles can only use 1 public charging pile, and the proportion of vehicles to piles is very low, and this trend is increasing. The same data from the Charging Alliance pointed out that from January to November 2021, the national charging infrastructure increased by 704,000 units, the sales of new energy vehicles were 2.990 million, and the incremental ratio of vehicle piles was 4.2:1. That is to say, even if the probability of encountering a faulty pile is 0, it is becoming more and more difficult for today's new energy car owners to find piles outside.
So isn't it easier to charge at home? The answer also seems to be no. A while ago, a Weibo post by Shen Hui, the founder of WM, caused a hot discussion, saying that in 2021, there are a full 20,000 charging piles that cannot be delivered to users with the car, considering that WM's annual sales are about 44,000, which means that nearly half of WM's users cannot charge at home. It is not only the Weima family that has encountered such a dilemma. In Weilai, where high-end car owners gather, the user's private pile installation rate only hovers at 60%.
On the Internet, you can casually flip to the user's complaints and anxieties about the inability to achieve home charging, including the obstruction of the property, the lack of property rights in the parking space, the inaction of the construction team, and so on. Peeling off the fog of the dog blood story, you will find that the "in the final analysis" of the pile problem still cannot escape the word "interest". Taking the property perspective as an example, in a community with 500 household specifications and a total power of about 3000kva of 3 transformers, assuming that half of the owners have mainstream 7kw charging piles, it is equivalent to adding 250 additional households to live in the community to use electricity, which means that the grid pressure will be overwhelmed. The cost of adding transformers and resurfacing cables is often in the hundreds of thousands or even millions, obviously the property can not come up with money, nor can it afford to "let go" the owners of the safety hazards of the pile, not to mention the ideal state of "one car and one pile".
The problem of replenishment cannot be circumvented, but "one car and one pile" can be bypassed
Why is it that whenever people talk about the problem of replenishment, private pile installation always becomes the focus? Even the endless queues of public piles during the holidays and the news of bad piles are difficult to divert public opinion. This is because everyone on Earth knows that the best energy replenishment experience depends on the cost of time, that is, charging time and pile finding time. From this point of view, private pile charging is undoubtedly the best choice, which can maximize the huge car cost advantage of new energy vehicles compared with fuel vehicles, and can also best stimulate consumers' desire to buy cars and release the potential of the car market. This also highlights the importance of solving the problem of charging at the user's doorstep.
Whether it is at the policy level or at the industry level, all parties have long foreseen the inability to achieve the path of "one car and one pile", and have begun to explore the path of efficient integration and utilization of energy replenishment resources. In this regard, it is precisely Weima Shenhui, who previously complained that 20,000 charging piles could not be sent, took the lead in giving users a clear answer. In a recent interview with CCTV, he said that the landing of the "private pile sharing" model will be launched.
Shortly thereafter, we also learned from WM's official channels that Shen Hui's "private pile sharing" plan belongs to the "open source and increased flow" integrated solution for the problem of replenishing energy at the user's doorstep. "Open source" refers to WM and the State Grid, etc., a layout of public charging piles. For example, in terms of the overall scale of public piles, WM has covered 32 provincial-level administrative regions and 361 cities across the country, providing users with more than 440,000 charging piles through the "Instant Passenger" APP. In the next step, WM will cooperate with Agile in the D2 round of financing to 100% guarantee that the newly built residential areas have parking spaces and charging spaces. "Increased flow" is WM's version of "private pile sharing", the business will be launched on the guest line APP, is currently advancing as planned, users can make an appointment online at that time, seek the consent of the owner of the household pile, and the open object will be open to all new energy vehicle users.
Scratch the point! WM's "private pile sharing" plan is not only for WM users themselves, but fully open to all new energy owners, WM's initiative undoubtedly released a signal to users and the industry to actively solve the problem of energy at the doorstep, which is undoubtedly valuable for a profit-oriented car company.
Generally speaking, the upper limit of the slow charging time of a new energy vehicle is between 10-12 hours, in other words, a private pile is idle for about half of the time every day, and Weima's "private pile sharing" is aimed at the value of this idle period. Under the premise of "not forcing" the property to pay more management and risk costs, the user's energy supplementary experience is improved to the greatest extent, especially considering that the rate of bad piles in public charging piles in the country is still not low.
Of course, the real landing of "private pile sharing" still needs to face the opening of many links. For example, how to clear the threshold for foreign supplementary vehicles to enter the community, maintain the safety management cost of the property, how to use the long-term incentive mechanism to encourage more enterprises and users to participate in it, and so on. Even the author also expects Shen Hui to further disclose the technical details of "private pile sharing" in the future, such as the difference between the charging power of shared piles and ordinary piles, the mode of intelligent settlement, etc., which can be interpreted more and more deeply.
However, no matter what, in the context of the inability to quickly solve the problem of community piles at this stage, Shen Hui's "private pile sharing" has indeed opened up a new way to solve problems for the society and the industry. In the future, when this business model gradually runs through and becomes familiar, it will greatly solve the user's worries about the problem of replenishment. At that time, perhaps no one will discuss the question of whether to buy an electric car or not.