In mid-January this year, Warren Buffett's first new year's move was still in the energy sector, taking the remaining stake in Pilot, the largest travel service center operator in North America, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of his own investment company. Although Pilot is only one of the giants of the U.S. travel service center industry, it sells more than 13 billion gallons of diesel and gasoline a year, and is working with several major car brands such as General Motors and Volvo to lay out the electric car charging network in the United States.
The United States developed early in highway construction, the automobile culture flourished, and the travel service industry, which is an important facility for road transportation, was developed. According to the data, in North America, Pilot has nearly 700 travel service centers and nearly 200 retail stores, and more than 20,000 employees provide refueling, catering, retail and other services for a large number of drivers and passengers on intercontinental highways. Now, this huge network of travel services is about to be added to an equally huge EV charging network – and it was this that attracted Warren Buffett to take it into his hands early.
The vast highway charging network is seen as the new outlet, and by 2026, Pilot's partnership with GM and Volvo alone will see up to thousands of new EV charging stations that could serve self-driving trucks. In 2023, electric vehicles represented by Tesla will show rapid growth in the U.S. domestic market, and most of the leading forces of self-driving trucks will be American companies.
In terms of software, in recent years, the service areas of the mainland expressways have gradually become scenic spots, and the service formats have been continuously innovated, and in terms of hardware, the layout of charging piles in the service areas of the mainland expressways has accelerated, and the quantity and quality have been continuously improved, reaching 95% by the end of 2023 With the development of technology, the charging efficiency is also improving, which well supports the explosive growth of domestic new energy vehicles.
The data shows that the mileage of highway construction in mainland China is still growing steadily, and the number of supporting expressway service areas is also increasing steadily. What few people in the world know is that the people of Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, operate about half of the expressway service area. Half of the more than 3,000 pairs/7,000 expressway service areas currently established in mainland China are contracted outward, and most of them are operated by Tongxiang people. According to the official statement of Tongxiang, 8 of the 1,600 pairs / more than 3,000 expressway service areas have become Tongxiang people's management, and the birth of Juyun people, Jiaxing Tonghui, Kaitong Investment, Litian Expressway and other well-known brands in the industry, the famous Yangcheng Lake service area, East Lushan service area, etc. are from the hands of these Tongxiang brands, and have driven the scenic spot and service involution of the national expressway service area, and a large number of innovative formats first appeared in the Tongxiang high-speed service area, which was widely acclaimed, and then copied by other service areas. Tongxiang even extended the dispute over the service area to shipping, building a water service area.