New energy vehicles "a difficult to find" pile enterprises "number one player" but why 4 years of huge losses of 1.2 billion?

Recently, the China Automobile Association released data showing that in January, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 452,000 units and 431,000 units, respectively, an increase of 1.3 times and 1.4 times year-on-year. In 2021, global and China new energy passenger car sales reached 5.96 million and 3.32 million units.

However, the number of new energy vehicles has soared, and the spit of "a difficult to find" has risen one after another, and the days of pile companies have not been moist.

Yu Dexiang, chairman of the public charging pile number one player Te Lai, said in an open letter that the special call lost 1.2 billion yuan in the first four years of its establishment.

"A hard thing to ask for"? Utilization rate of public charging piles is only 6%

Last year's National Day holiday car owners scrambling for charging piles, so far impressive. Traveling during the Spring Festival in 2022, many car owners still have their hearts and dare to go on the road after being fully charged in advance.

Ms. Tang, the owner of Xiaopeng P7, said that this year to play in Fengdu snow, they are fully charged in advance, before they dare to leave, and they are worried about traffic jams and low temperatures, so that the endurance is greatly reduced, and the air conditioners are not dare to use.

Model3 owner Miss Yang said that this year on the high speed, it is obvious that the charging pile in the high-speed service area has increased, but the corresponding new energy vehicles have also increased a lot, and it feels that the charging pile is still in short supply. Go to the electric vehicle charging station, several charging parking spaces have been BYD, Tesla Model X, Gaohe HiPhi X and other "shortcuts".

However, "a hard thing to find" may be just an "illusion".

On February 18, the China Charging Alliance released data showing that as of January 2022, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in the country was 2.731 million units. By the end of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in the country will be 7.84 million. The vehicle-to-pile ratio is basically at an overall level of 3:1.

"The most appropriate ratio for current piles is 3:1." Auto analyst Zhang Xiang said in an interview with upstream news reporters that lithium battery technology has developed rapidly, and the current mileage of electric vehicles generally reaches more than 500 kilometers, and the industry's dependence on public charging piles has been greatly reduced.

In Chongqing, according to incomplete statistics, by the end of 2021, the city has built a total of 37,000 charging piles, covering all districts and counties in the city, in a leading position in the west.

"It is true that there are more and more charging piles, but the situation of 'doves occupying the magpie's nest' occurs from time to time." Mr. Liu, a citizen, said that there are several charging stations in the layout of the State Grid and special calls a few hundred meters near the company, but if you come late in the morning, the charging space will be occupied by fuel vehicles.

Similarly, downstairs of the Asia-Pacific International Building next to the Flower Garden Rail Station, although the fuel parking space is not full, there are still fuel vehicles "seizing" the charging space.

In the Jiefang Monument, the business district with the largest flow of people in Yuzhong District, there are only more than a dozen charging piles in a few charging stations, and they are also distributed in all corners of the parking lot, which is not easy to find.

The data shows that due to the incompatibility of the charging interface and the lack of pipe maintenance and other problems, the average daily effective utilization rate of domestic public charging piles in 2021 is only about 6%. This means that a huge majority of public charging piles have become "zombie piles".

Profitability is difficult to make a profit on a few cents to return the capital

At the same time, investing in public charging stations is a business with high investment and slow returns. Like many industries, there are more entrants, and price wars are inevitable.

On the software store, star network charging, special call, e charging, fast electricity, pony charging, speed charge, hui charging, Rui charging, cloud fast charging, Wanma ai charging and other charging APP is various, and some charging APP even competed for users with the slogan of "1 cent charging" and "1 yuan full of a car".

Up to now, more than 10 large enterprises such as State Grid Power, Special Call, Star Charging, Fast Power, tesla, etc., have carried out charging station construction and operation services in Chongqing.

Charging at different times and different APPS may cause different charging costs.

For example, a bus stop at a four-kilometer bus hub station in the South Bank District, 34 charging piles, a minimum of 0.46 yuan for one degree of electricity at night, and free parking for 2 hours. The special call has a charging service fee package, 60 yuan to buy 100 degrees, an annual card of 99 yuan, a continuous monthly card of 9.9 yuan.

Master Xiao of the online car said that he had encountered the largest subsidy, and the one-time electricity discount was 0.99 yuan, and it was necessary to spend thirty or forty yuan less.

An industry insider revealed that for pile companies, the total cost of charging stations is composed of two parts: operating costs and construction investment costs. The former mainly includes site rent, operation and maintenance costs, and the latter items include charging piles, charging terminals, charging modules, power access costs, charging cable costs, etc.

"The investment in a transformer will cost three or four hundred thousand yuan, but the entire charging station will rely on a few cents of profits to slowly return to the cost." said the above-mentioned person.

According to everbright securities research estimates, to reach the typical break-even point of 60kW DC pile and 7kW AC pile, the charge utilization rate needs 8.29% and 8.12%, respectively.

According to the calculation of everbright securities analysis model, at a single pile cost of 60,000 yuan, a charging service fee of 0.6 yuan / kW is taken according to the guidance price of each place. Assuming a single pile utilization rate of 5%, that is, 1.2 hours per day, the payback period of a 60kW DC fast charging pile takes 3.8 years, and this period must be extended even longer to include other costs such as operation and maintenance, land, and construction.

In addition, charging piles also need to have big data, information transmission analysis, AI research and development and other inputs, must "burn money".

"In addition to local subsidies to pile companies, the service fee of less than 2 cents per kilowatt hour is the main source of profit for public charging pile operators at present." Industry insiders said.

According to the data of Tianyancha, there are currently more than 160,000 charging pile-related enterprises in the mainland. However, since 2019, 50% of the domestic charging pile market has closed down or withdrawn.

A person in charge of a charging pile company revealed that 30% of enterprises are struggling on the benchmark line of breakeven.

Yu Dexiang, chairman of the public charging pile number one player, Te Lai, also said in an open letter, "The first four years of the establishment of the special call were terrified, and I don't know when the inflection point of the industry will appear, with a cumulative loss of 1.2 billion yuan in previous years." Moreover, according to the 2021 semi-annual report of Trident, the parent company of Telai, its new energy vehicle charging business revenue was 1.101 billion yuan, an increase of 69.64% year-on-year, but the gross profit margin was only 8.24%, a slight increase of 1.16% year-on-year.

Investment is hot Who will support the hundreds of billions of markets

Although the input cost is high and the return cycle is long, the charging and replacing industry has not been beaten into the cold palace by capital.

On May 17 last year, Wanbang Energy (Star Charging) announced that it had received Series B financing led by Hillhouse, IDG, Beijing Taikang Investment, Yuda Investment, Baolong and Sino-Ocean Real Estate, with a post-investment valuation of 15.5 billion yuan.

On the afternoon of June 20 of the same year, Trident issued an announcement that its subsidiary Telai intends to introduce strategic investors such as GLP, State Power Investment and Three Gorges Group through capital increase and share expansion, with a total capital increase of about 300 million yuan. In September, Yun kuaichong once again announced the completion of the B2 round of financing invested by NIO Capital and others.

According to Tianyancha data, since June last year, 6 charging pile operators have successively obtained financing, of which 2 have raised more than 300 million yuan.

In addition, Xiaopeng, Weilai, Tesla, etc. have also entered.

According to the plan, in 2025, the number of new energy vehicles is expected to exceed 26 million units, according to the vehicle-to-pile ratio of 1.5:1 calculation, the number of charging piles in the future will exceed 10,000 units, with a market space of 100 billion. According to the prediction of the State Grid Electric Vehicle and the Prospective Research Institute, the scale of the mainland charging pile market will increase by 30 times by 2030.

So, who will support this 100 billion market? According to the data, by the end of 2021, there are 4 enterprises operating more than 100,000 public charging piles, namely Star Charging, Special Call, State Grid, and Cloud Fast Charging, and the number of charging piles under them is 257,000 units, 252,000 units, 196,000 units, and 145,000 units, respectively. The total number of public charging piles of these four leading enterprises reached 850,000 units, accounting for 74% of the total.

Land, electricity, and equipment are the competition points of pile enterprises, and whoever takes the earlier step and holds more resources in his hands, the more likely he is to preemptively attack.

CITIC Securities expects that by 2025, the penetration rate figure is expected to increase to 32% and 42%. With the rapid growth of new energy vehicle sales, the utilization rate of public charging piles and shared private piles will also increase, and operators are expected to improve their profitability. Star Charging, Special Call, etc. have introduced some shared private piles, which do not require enterprises to invest in construction costs, but can share profits, which also helps to improve the profitability of charging pile operators.

Industry insiders also believe that charging pile companies should make efforts in artificial intelligence, big data mining, intelligent operation and maintenance, energy efficiency improvement, high-power charging, energy interconnection, etc., to explore and try to solve the future profit model of charging piles.

Upstream journalist Yan Wei