Extreme Daily (ID: rancaijingapp) original
Author | Hui Peng Quan
Edit | Rao Xiafei
Since spending more than 2 million yuan to build two charging stations in the county seat this year, Deng Qiang of Lezhi County, Ziyang City, has paid closer attention to all information in the field of new energy vehicles, trying to make his business more prosperous.
The policy of "new energy vehicles to the countryside" naturally hovered in Deng Qiang's mind for a long time, but when he thought of the current situation that the "2 piles and 4 guns" fast charging piles in the surrounding two towns basically had no orders, he felt that the timing was not right. However, he still found a big business opportunity, that is, the layout of slow charging piles in the county community.
Photo: Charging stations in the county
Source: Photo courtesy of Deng Qiang
Deng Qiang's two charging stations are both 20 charging guns, 10 piles with two slow charging guns. Some time ago, he suddenly found that several micro new energy vehicles that have not yet been listed often come to his charging station to charge with slow charging piles. The inquiry learned that either because of the installation cost, or because of the limited installation environment of the community, people in the county are facing the problem of inconvenience in charging the car.
Deng Qiang told Jipai Daily, "Slow charging piles into the community is imperative, first of all, it can greatly facilitate the daily life of residents, in addition, it does not need to invest in transformers, the cost is very small, the number can be more, and when there are charging piles every kilometer or even hundreds of meters in the future, the endurance anxiety of new energy vehicles will not be a problem." ”
At present, Deng Qiang has started his own "slow charging pile into the community big project" and plans to complete it in a few months.
Tu Yongkang of Yingshan County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province, felt the east wind of "new energy vehicles" going to the countryside earlier than Deng Qiang, and he and Deng Qiang did the same charging pile project in the community, but it was a different "technical route".
In addition to sharing charging piles and cooperating to build community charging pile business, Tu Yongkang's main business is "private pile sharing", that is, personal charging pile into a sharing mode, others can pay according to the price set by the charging pile owner, which is equivalent to the "pile owner" to make money with idle charging piles, "According to our investigation, a charging pile can bring 400-500 yuan to the 'pile owner' every month, and more importantly, it can also promote new energy vehicles to sink to the county and even the township faster." ”
However, from last September to now, Tu Yongkang's team has not been ideal in terms of operation. For the "private pile sharing" business, the cost of finding target customer groups is too high, and the shared charging pile and joint construction are difficult to land. According to Tu Yongkang, some properties are "more greedy", unwilling to contribute and want to get more profits, which is very difficult to promote.
Tu Yongkang believes that the "private pile sharing" project is actually making long-term money, and it is indeed not profitable in the short term, "I plan to continue to stick to it for a while and see the situation." ”
Obviously, the implementation of the "new energy to the countryside" policy needs more "doers" such as Deng Qiang and Tu Yongkang, and "Tu Yongkang" needs the help and support of the "new energy to the countryside" policy.
Speaking of "new energy vehicles to the countryside", Lin Jiao, general manager of Guangzhou Danci New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., believes that this is a mutually beneficial economic policy between the country and the market, and between the market and residents.
"The rural population accounts for more than one-third of the country's total population, and is a solid bottom consumption force. However, whether it is a series of stimulation and development behaviors for the sinking market, such as new energy vehicles going to the countryside or home appliances going to the countryside, they will face the situation of 'consumption difficulty', and targeted subsidy policies can ensure the promotion of new energy vehicles in the rural market. ”
An Guangyong, an expert from the Credit Management Committee of the All-Union M&A Association, agreed. An Guangyong told Jipai Daily that compared with cities, it remains to be seen whether rural areas with weak consumption power can afford to consume new energy vehicles, and relevant departments need to invest energy to change rural perceptions of new energy vehicles and promote their development.
Yu Shangyao, an associate professor at the Business School of Beijing Technology and Business University, believes that "the gimmick (of new energy vehicles going to the countryside) is greater than the actual effect", and it is not easy to implement if the preferential treatment cannot be implemented.
There is no doubt that "new energy vehicles going to the countryside" still faces many problems. But as Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at the Yellow River Institute of Science and Technology, said, the rural market is a blue ocean for new energy vehicles and needs to be explored.
In addition, "new energy vehicles to the countryside" is also to improve the well-being of farmers and provide them with a cleaner and more environmentally friendly means of transportation. The key to stimulating rural consumption potential and purchase willingness is to relieve farmers' worries about using new energy vehicles, which requires the joint efforts of the government, industry and car companies.
"New energy vehicles go to the countryside" wind again
In fact, the clarion call for "new energy vehicles to the countryside" first sounded in July 2020.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and the China Energy Administration jointly carried out the activities of sending cars to the countryside, and in the past three years, they have carried out 18 station launch activities in 10 provinces (cities), released 6 batches of nearly 200 rural models, and driven the cumulative sales of new energy rural models to more than 4.1 million.
3 years to the countryside, fruitful.
Nowadays, "new energy vehicles going to the countryside" has once again become a hot spot. Even the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure and Better Supporting the Rural and Rural Revitalization of New Energy Vehicles" formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration was officially promulgated, encouraging localities with conditions to provide rural residents with household registration to purchase new energy vehicles in the county where their household registration is located, and give consumption coupons and other support; Encourage localities with the capacity to introduce special support policies for the construction and operation of public charging infrastructure in rural areas.
"It is to further promote and popularize new energy vehicles." For the interpretation of the policy, Zhang Xiang made it clear. In Zhang Xiang's view, the growth rate of new energy vehicles in first- and second-tier cities has begun to slow down, but in recent years, the growth rate of the rural market has been higher than the average level of the industry, and it can continue to be explored.
Yuan Shuai, executive vice president of the Institute of Agriculture, Culture and Tourism Industry Revitalization and deputy secretary-general of the Zhongguancun Internet of Things Industry Alliance, told Jipai Daily from the perspective of energy that the main reason for Continental's promotion of the development of new energy vehicles is that oil, as a non-renewable resource, has been in a relatively tight state, and the rise of new energy vehicles can alleviate the large demand for oil to a certain extent.
In addition, Yuan Shuai also believes that developed automobile countries are developing new energy vehicles, and China cannot lag behind, and it is necessary to take advantage of the new energy development trend to achieve curve overtaking to achieve automobile power.
Yuan Shuai told Jipai Daily that in recent years, relevant departments have successively introduced a series of support and cultivation policies and encouraging policies to create conditions for the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle industry in the future, driving the continuous development of the mainland new energy vehicle and lithium battery industry, and actively promoting the healthy development of the new energy industry chain and accelerating the upgrading of process technology and safety performance through the implementation of the policy of supporting the survival of the fittest.
Lin Jianjian also obviously recognizes and supports the "automobile power" line. Lin Jian said that the new energy automobile industry is now a label in the mainland, "Looking at all fields, it is still the most 'top' of new energy vehicles." ”
Photo: Charging station
Source/Photo courtesy of Lin Focus
However, Lin also believes that at present, he does not see a clear policy tendency and profit concession space, so the market will not have a large chain reaction, and it is estimated that this gust of wind will take a while to change the market.
According to China Fortune Network, after Chery QQ Ice Cream and Hongguang MINIEV took the lead in launching the new energy rural policy, BYD and Zerorun are also actively deploying related work.
On May 17, GAC Group and GAC New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., which is jointly controlled by Aion, signed a strategic cooperation agreement with PetroChina Guangdong Sales Company, which will fully develop new energy to the countryside and adopt a combination of slow charging and fast charging to accelerate the layout of the township power supply network.
There are opportunities, but also difficulties
As many experts contacted by Extreme Daily said, due to the particularity of new energy vehicles, charging facilities have also become an urgent problem for "new energy vehicles to go to the countryside".
Lin Jianjian said that the car scene of rural residents is more diverse, and it is difficult for household slow charging to fully meet the needs of users, so the popularity of public fast charging is also an indispensable part, and because the investment threshold of public fast charging is high, and there are too many unstable factors in the rural charging market, most investors will not consider the layout of the rural charging market.
Deng Qiang and Tu Yongkang took this into account that they firmly developed the slow charging business.
Speaking of how to start the business of building charging stations, Deng Qiang told Jipai Daily that when he took a taxi, he suddenly found that all taxis and ride-hailing cars had been replaced with new energy vehicles, and he felt good after testing it. In addition, the state is implementing the "new energy vehicles to the countryside" policy, Deng Qiang feels that new energy vehicles are definitely the future trend, so there must be a market for building charging stations.
Preparing in February, Deng Qiang began to build the first charging station in March.
Deng Qiang, who now has two charging stations, found that the daily charging volume is almost fixed, and realized that the local fast charging stations were saturated, so he found the business opportunity of "slow charging piles into the community".
Figure/Slow charging pile
Source: Photo courtesy of Deng Qiang
"There are hundreds of communities in our county, and my idea is to cover all the communities, slow charging has no technical content, and there is no need to invest in transformers. If each community invests 4-6 charging guns, the cost is about 3,000 yuan, and 100 communities only need about 300,000 yuan. Compared with the fast charging station, the slow charging pile investment is much less, but the revenue it generates at the same time will definitely exceed that of a fast charging station. ”
Now Deng Qiang's job is to communicate with the community, talk about cooperation and sharing, "The most important thing for slow charging piles into the community is to let the property out of the site, their own equipment, rather than renting the site, professional people do professional things, so that is the long-term cooperation model." ”
Although Deng Qiang's career is still relatively smooth, he still hopes that the government can provide some subsidies to those who invest in building a website, "The return on my website is expected to be about 3-5 years, so that I can pay back earlier." ”
Tu Yongkang's "private pile sharing" and "shared charging pile" business is not so smooth.
Tu Yongkang told Jipai Daily that he and several partners also started their own business because they found that the new energy automobile industry is developing rapidly, the charging pile market demand is strong, and the people who installed the charging pile also want to earn some pocket money in their free time.
Photo: Shared charging pile
Source: Photo courtesy of Tu Yongkang
In fact, at the beginning of the business, Tu Yongkang still has a sense of achievement, because almost all customers come to him, and he himself learned software development, so he very simply developed a small program, as long as the customer buys back the equipment, sets the price, you can let others scan the code to use, a device can bring four or five hundred yuan to the "pile owner" a month.
But "the aroma of wine is still afraid of the deep alley", even if it is a project that can make stable money, how to find target customers outside the county has become a problem for Tu Yongkang's team, "If we do some advertising, it may be better, but this is not friendly to our company, after all, we have invested only hundreds of thousands of yuan in total." ”
Therefore, Tu Yongkang also feels that if the government has some special fund support, he is confident that he will make his current business bigger and stronger.
"The wind" can't blow the county?
Obviously, Tu Yongkang does not want his career to be bound by the county, especially the county seat, and the end point of "new energy vehicles to the countryside" is definitely not the county seat.
But the current reality is so disappointing.
An automotive industry expert whose hometown is in rural Hebei told Jupai Daily that taking the entire Hebei region as an example, there are generally fewer new energy vehicles in rural areas, almost none, including very few local people in the county to buy new energy vehicles.
"But they will see cases of spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles and imperfect charging facilities through some channels, and they will think that the entire new energy vehicle is still an unreliable choice, and they will not take the initiative to buy." Unless there are some discounts, or there is a charging station next to him, he will try it. ”
A fuel vehicle owner whose home is less than 5 kilometers from Lantian County, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, also confirmed to Jipai Daily that no one in his village has bought new energy vehicles or built charging stations.
The countryside in the north seems to have become a "wasteland" for "new energy vehicles to the countryside".
How to change the perception of new energy vehicles in rural areas and promote their development? An Guangyong believes that, first of all, increase the publicity and education of new energy vehicles to improve rural residents' understanding and awareness of new energy vehicles; At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen infrastructure construction, provide convenient charging facilities and services, and solve the problem of inconvenient charging in rural areas; In addition, it is also necessary to promote price decline, and make the price of new energy vehicles more affordable through policy support and market competition.
Improving rural residents' awareness of new energy vehicles is also the same view of industry experts such as Zhang Xiang, Shenzhen Xinyoudao Company and founder of the new energy vehicle reform platform.
Zhang Yuan told Jipai Daily that the policy at the national level is a guiding direction, and it takes time to do popular education, including the corresponding new energy vehicle industry associations in various places, to do some research, publicity and activities, so as to drive the entire new energy vehicle to the countryside.
In terms of infrastructure construction, Lin Jian believes that if rural areas can have moderate power support policies, such as relaxing the application conditions for public transformers and reducing the cost and difficulty of power construction, it can largely attract investors to contribute to the rural charging market and improve the supporting facilities of the rural new energy automobile industry.
Photo: Shared construction of charging piles
Source: Photo courtesy of Tu Yongkang
"The most important thing in building a station is the location, but if the cost of building a station can be minimized, it will also make the matter of rural charging stations a good project for small bourgeois entrepreneurship with 'low investment and stable income'." Lin Jianjian said.
In addition, in Lin's view, targeted subsidy policies can ensure the better promotion of new energy vehicles in the rural market. For example, provide licensed targeted subsidies for new energy pickup trucks for merchant residents with freight needs; Provide long-term interest-free loan policies for ordinary car users who do not change cars frequently; Provide the lowest possible proportion of down payment preferential policies for residents who urgently need new energy vehicles to participate in the work, so that they can quickly use cars in the short term and complete the conversion of revenue.
As Zhang Yuan said, under the guidance of policies, the government, new energy automobile industry associations, car companies, private enterprises, etc. work together, "new energy vehicles to the countryside" can be carried out smoothly.
Based on this, in Zhang Yuan's view, "new energy vehicles going to the countryside" will not have much outbreak this year, and the peak period should be next year.
Resources:
"New energy vehicles in the countryside for 4 years: who is counterattacking and who is lost?" Source: Deep Eye Finance;
"New energy goes to the countryside into a blue ocean market, many car companies respond to the call", source: China Fortune Network.
*The title image is from Visual China.
*Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information in this article or the opinions expressed constitute investment advice to anyone.