Hundreds of billions of dollars of business are stuck in electricity prices: some car owners spend 400 yuan more per month, and charging piles increase service fees to make up for losses
Source: Times Weekly Author: He Mingjun Intern reporter Li Wei
In the afternoon of August, the weather after the beginning of autumn is still hot. In a public charging pile station in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, the charging pile is basically operating at full capacity. The location of a charging pile was empty, and soon a new energy vehicle filled it.
In response to high temperatures, electricity bills for new energy vehicles are also rising.
"It feels like it's been two months since the charging fee price has increased." Wang Junkai (pseudonym), a Guangzhou driver who has been engaged in the ride-hailing industry for many years, complained in an interview with a reporter from Time Weekly. E-hailing drivers have always been the main user group of public charging piles. A number of ride-hailing drivers interviewed by Times reporters said that charging fees have been rising for some time.
Not only Guangzhou, but recently, new energy vehicle owners in Shanghai, Qingdao, Chongqing, Zhengzhou and other places across the country have said that charging piles have risen, with the highest increase of nearly 1 times. According to media reports, almost all different brands of new energy charging stations in Zhengzhou have ushered in price increases, charging fees have increased by more than 50% in some periods, and the cheapest "late-night stage" charging fees on weekdays have increased by nearly 1 times. A new energy rental driver from Zhengzhou said, "It costs 15~16 yuan more a day, and 400~500 yuan a month." ”
According to surging news reports, some car friends in Shanghai broke the news that compared with the charging fee before the price increase, the new electricity price was almost increased by 50%. "Especially at noon (time-of-use electricity bills) rose the most, some rose by six or seven cents, previously 1.15 yuan, now it has risen to 2.05 yuan, almost doubled, this electricity is really unusable."
As a group with highly sensitive charging costs, Wang Junkai will more deliberately look for cheap time periods to charge, generally after the early hours of the morning. But it's just a charge a day, "anyway, how expensive it is." ”
Xie Zuo (pseudonym), a private car owner in a second-tier city, believes that "summer is the peak of electricity consumption, and price increases are normal." ”
Why did the price increase?
At present, the charging fee of commercial charging piles consists of two parts, namely electricity price and service fee: among them, the electricity price is stipulated by the state, and the price may vary in different regions and different time periods; The upper limit of the service fee standard is set by the local development and reform commission or its authorized unit to cover the operating costs of charging facilities. Some insiders of the charging pile operator said that the platform does not participate in any pricing.
In terms of charging mode, the market can be roughly divided into two types: "fixed electricity price + service fee" and "time-based electricity price + service fee", the former is a fixed charging price, and the latter is a valley peak electricity price. In addition, due to the different charging busyness during the day and night, the service fees of some charging pile operators also fluctuate to a certain extent. In general, electricity prices are higher during the noon time and after hours to before midnight, but the service fee is lower.
According to data from the Energy Chain Research Institute, an industry research institution, the average service fee of charging stations in the country is about 0.4 yuan / kWh, and the service fee in some cities is in the range of 0.1 yuan / kWh to 0.3 yuan / kWh, while the service fee in the core area of some cities is more than 0.6 yuan / kWh.
Taking "Xiaoju Charging" as an example, the charging price of Guangzhou Tianhe Development Center Building using the "fixed electricity price" model is 1.3 yuan / kWh for a whole day. The Yangji Rehabilitation Community, which is 1 km away, uses the "time-by-time electricity price" model, with a price of 0.9 yuan per kWh from 0:00 to 8:00 during the trough period, and 2.17 RMB/kWh from 11:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:00 during peak hours.
It should be noted that in charging stations that use the "time-based electricity price" model, the service fee is usually a fixed fee, which generally does not change with time. For example, the service fee of the above-mentioned Yangji rehabilitation community is 0.6 yuan / kWh.
Whether it's a private car or a ride-hailing car, drivers seem to have mastered how to deal with the price increase - open membership. Many of the interviewed drivers said that in order to slow down the impact of the increase in charging fees, they purchased members on charging apps such as fast electricity and special calls, and the cost of each charge can be two yuan to tens of yuan cheaper.
Xie Zuo showed the Times reporter his membership page on Kuaidian. The page shows that Xie Zuo saved a total of 13.36 yuan in charging fees after purchasing the membership card, while the monthly card price of Kuaidian is 39 yuan / month. "If you can save 10 yuan a week, you can save 500 yuan a year." Now charge, the electricity bill is a few cents and you have to plan well. ”
Screenshot of fast APP
Some new energy vehicle owners will also choose to open several charging APP members at the same time. "If you see one driving one, you can get cheaper," said Master Wang, a driver who is used to charging during off-peak hours.
However, for the driver group, the impact of the increase in charging fees is mainly concentrated in first-tier and some provincial capitals. Zhang Xiang, director of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, talked with the taxi driver who drove him on a business trip to Changsha and learned that the charging cost in Changsha had not increased. "Generally, new energy taxis are driven by 2 drivers in turn, and drivers during the day generally charge at 2 p.m., about 1.1 yuan / kWh. Another driver is charging at night, about 0.6 yuan / kWh. Zhang Xiang told the Times reporter.
There are many statements in the market about the factors that drive the price increase of charging costs, in addition to the factors of summer electricity peaks, the adjustment of electricity consumption policies may have a greater impact on new energy charging costs - most drivers do not understand this situation.
In May this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on Provincial Power Grid Transmission and Distribution Prices and Related Matters in the Third Regulatory Cycle (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), and the new electricity price scheme was implemented from June 1. The Notice indicates that the new electricity price scheme will gradually classify the electricity prices of users into three categories: residential life, agricultural production and industrial and commercial electricity (except for the implementation of residential and agricultural production electricity prices), and no longer distinguish between large industrial users and general industrial and commercial users.
Electricity used by public charging piles is industrial electricity, but in the past, the price of commercial electricity was higher than that of industrial electricity. After the implementation of the new electricity price plan, industrial and commercial electricity consumption will be "the same price as the grid". This causes industrial electricity prices to rise, which affects the price of electricity in charging costs.
"Since the beginning of summer, there are three main reasons for the increase in charging fees in some areas." A relevant person from Nenglian Zhidian told the Times reporter, "Affected by the "Notice on the Transmission and Distribution Price of the Provincial Power Grid in the Third Regulatory Cycle and Related Matters" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in May this year; It is related to the local price alliance initiated by the National Development and Reform Commission or other relevant departments (the organization of the initiator, the participation of local operating enterprises, unified price adjustment, and protection of the rights and interests of local charging operating enterprises); Spontaneous collective price adjustment by operators participating in operations in the region. ”
Charging piles are still good business?
After the east wind of new energy blows, the charging pile industry has experienced explosive growth. According to the data of Tianfeng Securities Research Report, by 2022, there will be more than 3,000 charging pile operating enterprises of various types, including 17 enterprises with more than 10,000 public pile holdings. At the end of 2019, there were only more than 100 charging pile companies left after the first round of clearance period.
Nenglian Zhidian is the first Chinese charging service stock listed on the US stock market. According to the official website, Nenglian Zhidian covers more than 350 cities and 55,000 charging stations.
"At present, in the government pricing catalogue published in many places, the charging service fee standard is no longer within the scope. For example, the Notice of the Development and Reform Commission of Shanxi Province on Printing and Distributing the "Shanxi Pricing Catalogue" has been implemented on February 1, 2023, and the municipal development and reform commissions will clean up and abolish the relevant policy documents on electric vehicle charging and swapping service fees. "At present, most of the charging operators across the country have the mentality of 'grabbing the card slot', and their operations are in a loss-making state, because the volume of electric vehicles is still small, and the utilization rate of piles is generally between 10% and 20%, so the loss is reduced by raising the charging service fee and the return cycle is shortened." ”
The Times Weekly has previously reported in detail on the profit model of charging piles. Charging pile belongs to the heavy asset input industry, the source of profit is mostly "electricity fee + service fee", because the electricity fee needs to deduct the cost, so the focus of profit is mostly on the service fee, the source of income is single, and the return period is long.
"The profit of the charging pile is mainly the charging service fee, and the rest depends on the venue itself to capture the flow of customers, such as opening a restaurant, commissary and the like." An employee who once worked in a head charging company introduced the profit method of charging piles to the Times reporter, "Income depends on personal resources, basically the site that can be used to build charging stations in first- and second-tier cities has been almost covered, and the rest are some 'hard bones'." ”
Even after the release of new energy vehicles in 2021, the energy replenishment link is still not evenly distributed.
According to data from the China Charging Alliance, as of June 2023, there were 6.652 million charging piles in the statistical caliber, including 2.149 million public charging piles and 4.503 million private charging piles built with vehicles, with a vehicle pile ratio of about 2.6:1, which still has not reached the ideal 1:1 ratio.
However, under the background of industry clearance and electricity price adjustment, the charging pile operation market is expected to usher in new development opportunities, and the 100 billion blue ocean market is opening. According to data from Great Wall Securities, the market size of China's charging pile industry will grow to 287.02 billion yuan in 2026, and the average annual compound growth rate from 2022 to 2026 will be as high as 37.22%. Obviously, even if the return period is long, the charging pile market with sufficient development potential still attracts countless capital rushing in.
At present, the players in the charging operation market are mainly divided into three categories: asset-based charging operators, third-party charging service providers, and automotive charging operators. Among them, enterprises such as special calls and star charging that require heavy asset investment themselves are asset types; Asset-light SaaS services such as Energy Chain Smart Power and Cloud Fast Charging are third-party charging service providers; NIO, Tesla, Xpeng, etc. are representative enterprises of car charging service providers.
There is no difference in electricity prices themselves, and the profit margin mainly comes from service fees, but this model may diversify with operators with main operation services such as Energy Chain Zhidian and gradually break profit anxiety. For example, advertising revenue, electricity price profit of solar storage and charging integration, etc. can become the source of income for future charging piles.
Among them, the integration of optical storage and charging is more promising to become the second profit point of charging piles.
On August 1, 2022, Sinopec Fujian Petroleum and CATL (300750. SZ) cooperated in the construction of the first "photovoltaic charging" refueling station in Fujian. According to reports, the station's photovoltaic power generation and the public power grid flexible interaction and relatively independent operation, the use of green energy to meet the station's electricity demand, effectively improve the station's clean energy power supply ratio, this round of photovoltaic project installed capacity of 72.15KWp, annual power generation is expected to be 80,000KWh. Compared with traditional fossil energy, more than 1,570 tons of carbon dioxide can be reduced during the life cycle of the project.
Source: Sinopec
However, some people in the industry have expressed concerns. "After installing photovoltaics, the station needs to be equipped with energy storage, because the noon period is the peak period of photovoltaic power generation, but it is the trough period of electricity consumption, so there needs to be an energy storage for dynamic leveling." An industry insider in the charging pile told the Times reporter, "This means that the one-time investment cost is too high, and the recovery cost cycle is prolonged." From the perspective of subjective willingness, the willingness to equip the station with photovoltaics may not be too strong. ”
The above-mentioned people also believe that the integration of solar storage and charging needs to rely on policies to support or stimulate, but it is still a general trend in the future. Perhaps, the future charging pile will not be trapped in the traditional electricity price.