Thailand urgently lacks charging piles, the ratio of electric vehicles to charging piles is about 20:1, another new opportunity to go overseas?

Downtown Road in Bangkok, Thailand (whale dimension shooting)

2022 can be said to be the first year of Thailand's electric vehicle leapfrog development. With more than 12,000 EVs sold in Thailand in 2022, the demand for charging piles (EVCPs) is increasing in Thailand as the number of EVs in Thailand surges.

Many charging pile companies are also targeting the Thai market, intending to catch up with the rapid development of the Thai electric vehicle market.

01

Shortage

The number of charging stations and charging piles in Thailand is seriously insufficient. According to the Thai Electric Vehicle Association, as of the end of December 2022, there were only 3,739 public charging piles in Thailand, of which 2,404 were slow charging (AC) and 1,342 were fast charging (DC). In fast charging, there are 1079 DC CSS2 interfaces and 263 DC CHAdeMO interfaces. Of course, these are only charging pile outlets open to the public, and some of them are not included in it, such as SAIC MG has also built charging piles, but at present, only MG electric vehicle customers can use it.

As of the end of December 2022, the number of charging stations of each brand in Thailand and the corresponding number of charging piles

In Thailand, there are two charging interface standards, CHAdeMO and CCS2, the former is a Japanese standard, the latter is a European standard. At present, there are mainly 5 charging pile standards in the world, namely China's national standard GB/T, CCS1 American standard (combo/type 1), CCS2 European standard (combo/type 2), CHAdeMO Japanese standard, Tesla is still a maverick, has its own independent set of charging interface standards. The charging piles in Thailand are currently mainly Japanese and European.

Summary of electric models in Thailand in 2022

It can be seen that more than half of the current charging piles in Thailand are slow charging, which greatly reduces the charging efficiency of electric vehicles. Popular science, the charging capacity of the slow charger is usually 3~7 kilowatts, and it generally takes more than 6 hours to fully charge the electric vehicle. Fast charging power can be as high as 50 kW or more, and it usually only takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours to fully charge an electric car. Of course, this is related to the living habits of Thai people, in addition to Bangkok's urban area is mainly high-rise buildings, Bangkok other provinces are basically a large rural feeling, everyone mainly lives in villas, rarely live on high-rises, Thais go home in their villa can charge electric vehicles, which also leads to a relatively low demand for fast by Thais. However, in supermarkets, office buildings, high-rises, highway service stations and other places, there is still a need to install a large number of fast charging facilities.

So what is the shortage of charging piles in Thailand? At present, there are more than 2,500 charging piles in Thailand, and the ratio of electric vehicles to charging piles is about 20:1, that is, 20 electric vehicles share an average of 1 charging pile. According to the current growth rate of electric vehicles in Thailand, soon this ratio will reach 30:1. In comparison, the current ratio of vehicle piles in China is about 3:1. Although the number of domestic charging piles has increased greatly under the rapid construction in recent years, there is still a problem of uneven regional distribution and a small proportion of shared charging piles. In the Yangtze River Delta, the number of charging piles is relatively large, but there are still not enough charging piles in the central and western regions.

Thailand actually has this problem. Most of the charging piles are mainly concentrated in the capital Bangkok. Below is a map of the distribution of charging stations in Thailand, and it is clear that charging stations are mainly concentrated in Bangkok.

02

opportunity

The ratio of 3:1 to the Chinese car pile ratio mentioned above still includes private charging piles. As of 2022, there are more than 4.7 million new energy charging piles in Chinese mainland, of which private charging piles account for nearly 65%, shared charging piles account for less than 40%, and half of them are still slow charging. China's current plan is to reach a 2:1 vehicle pile ratio by 2025 and 1:1 by 2030. At China's speed, it will take another 8 years to reach 1:1.

Thailand's Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) currently plans to add 567 new charging stations and more than 13,000 charging piles within eight years, that is, by 2030. Thailand wants to produce 30% of the total electric vehicle production by 2030, which means that the total production of electric vehicles will reach 750,000 units. Obviously, the current construction speed of this charging pile planned in Thailand is far from the growth rate of electric vehicles in Thailand.

Of course, while the Thai government adopts various subsidies, taxes and other preferential policies to stimulate the consumption of electric vehicles, it is also encouraging car manufacturers to participate in the construction of public electric vehicle charging stations and charging piles. In Thailand, investing in the construction of charging piles, enterprises have preferential policies such as exemption from corporate income tax and subsidies. At present, the developers of charging piles in Thailand are mainly state-owned institutions, such as the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), the Power Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the National Oil Company of Thailand (PTT) and some automobile manufacturing companies. Automobile manufacturing companies often cooperate with these state-owned institutions to build charging stations and charging piles, such as SAIC MG, Great Wall Motor, Nezha Automobile and other Chinese brands have launched relevant cooperation with these state-owned institutions in Thailand.

The main companies building charging stations in Thailand are EA anywhere, EVOLT, SHARGE, EV station, PEA VOLTA, ELeX (by EGAT), ONION, Noodoe EV, HAUP, Mea EV, PUMP CHARGE, CHOSEN and GWM.

MEA EV, a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), invested in Thailand's first electric vehicle charging station and partnered with CP Group to set up charging stations around 7-Eleven convenience stores. MEA EV has also developed the MEA EV Application, through which users can find charging stations (only for charging stations registered with the Metropolitan Electricity Authority), and display the route to the charging station in combination with map navigation, and book a charging station in advance.

The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has also joined in providing charging points for electric vehicles. The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has also partnered with Bangchak Corporation Public Company Limited to install EV charging stations at most Bangchak gas stations in Thailand, opening PEA VOLTA charging stations. PEA VOLTA HAS ALSO DEVELOPED ITS OWN APP THAT MAKES IT EASY FOR USERS TO FIND CHARGING STATIONS AND CHARGE THEM.

The Power Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) first installed EGAT charging stations at EGAT's power plants. EGAT's new business, the "EGAT EleX" charging station under EGAT EV Business Solutions, focuses on expanding stations along major tourist routes across the country to meet the needs of users traveling across the country. EGAT has also developed the EleXA mobile app.

EA Anywhere is a brand of Energy Mahanakorn Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Energy Absolute Public Company Limited (EA). EA Anywhere is a supplier of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV) charging stations, primarily located in Bangkok.

The cumulative number of electric vehicle registrations in Thailand between 2018 and 2023

According to the Thai Electric Vehicle Association (EVAT), as of January 31, 2023, a total of 36,775 Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were registered in Thailand in 2022, 43,360 were registered in Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (Hybrid Electric Vehicles, HEV) has registered a total of 267391 vehicles.

With the increase in demand for charging piles in Thailand, it is necessary to manufacture charging piles locally to reduce import costs, and most of the charging piles in Thailand are currently imported from Japan, China and other countries. For businesses, investing in the installation and operation of these EV charging stations is a business opportunity. Private businesses can choose to partner with government agencies or local municipalities to install and operate public EV parking stations in different locations, such as shopping malls, airports, and public parking lots.

According to the forecast of Kaitai Research Center, referring to the ratio of vehicle piles in Singapore, Shanghai, London and other cities, and based on Thailand's population density, car type and quantity, it is found that Thailand should have no less than 19,000 public charging piles by 2025 to meet the demand for plug-in pure electric vehicles that may increase to 300,000 units, of which the main customer group is about 180,000 pure electric vehicles, about 122,000 in Bangkok and surrounding areas, and about 58,000 in the outer provinces.

In the future, the sales of hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and pure electric vehicles (BEVs) in Thailand will increase significantly, which will bring huge business opportunities to Thailand to invest in public charging piles. The income from operating public electric vehicle charging stations not only comes from charging service fees, but also derives additional services such as retail, advertising, battery replacement, vehicle maintenance, etc., similar to the ecology of today's car gas stations.

Roads in downtown Bangkok, Thailand

However, in addition to seeing a huge increase in sales of electric vehicles in Thailand, companies also need to specifically consider factors such as the density of charging piles, charger types, consumer usage habits (most Thai residents live on the ground floor of single-family houses and tend to install wall-mounted car chargers in their homes), as well as electricity prices and charging pricing.

At present, the cost of charging services in Thailand, as of January 2022, the charging service fee for DC Charger (fast charging) during peak hours is about 6.5~8 baht/unit, and the service fee during off-peak hours is 3.5~4 baht/unit. AC Charge charging fee is 7~8 baht/time during peak hours and 4~4.5 baht/time during low peak hours. Charges vary slightly between charging station operators.

Of course, with the increasing acceptance of new energy vehicles in Southeast Asia and Thailand moving towards the goal of achieving more than 30% of electric vehicle sales by 2030, the huge demand brought by the market will promote the development of the electric pile market. This process will also become a huge opportunity for including Chinese electric pile companies. At present, there are more than 270,000 charging pile-related enterprises in China, and they are still growing rapidly. In the first half of 2022, 37,200 new ones were added, a year-on-year increase of 55.61%. Some charging pile business people are also exploring the relevant situation of investment with the whale dimension.

It is foreseeable that charging pile companies will usher in a wave of new opportunities in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Author | Jelly

Source | WhaleDimension (ID: WhaleDimension)