"This year's overseas version of the charging pile module is in short supply, and we have been working non-stop. ”
"The overseas business of charging piles has been very explosive, although the competition is becoming more and more fierce, our order volume continues to grow. ”
"The business volume in overseas markets continues to rise, the demand for overseas personnel continues to expand, and we are expanding our overseas sales and service team. ”
……
New energy vehicles are soaring all the way to the sea, and domestic charging piles are also going out quickly. According to industry insiders, the first quarter of each year is usually the off-season for the charging pile industry, but this year's charging pile market is particularly lively, especially in the overseas market of Chinese piles.
01
Chinese piles can be eaten overseas
As China's new energy vehicle exports have jumped to the first place in the world, China's charging piles have also begun to go global. Industry insiders told the "China Automotive News" reporter that "2023 is a year for mainland charging piles to go to sea". A person in charge of a charging pile company who did not want to disclose his name said that the company's charging pile exports have doubled in the past three years. 30,000 sets will be exported in 2021, 75,000 units in 2022, and 150,000 units in 2023.
First of all, the demand for overseas market has skyrocketed.
The vehicle-to-pile ratio is an indicator to observe when entering overseas markets. With the outbreak of the global new energy vehicle market, a number of research institutions have estimated that the vehicle-to-pile ratio of public charging piles in Europe and the United States is above 15:1, far less than China's 7.5:1. At the same time, the development of the charging pile market in European countries is extremely uneven, and the construction density of charging piles is very low. In this context, the gap of charging piles continues to increase. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there will be 5.5 million public fast charging piles and 10 million public slow charging piles in the world in 2030, with a broad market space.
The second is China's charging pile products.
According to the relevant person in charge of EN+ technology, the global new energy vehicle market demand is larger in China, the United States and Europe, and the demand for charging piles is growing with the growth of new energy vehicles.
China's pile can stand out, the first is that it is cost-effective. The unique supply chain and resource advantages in China make Chinese pile enterprises more cost-effective with the same product strength when they PK with overseas brand pile enterprises. The second is that Chinese pile companies can provide flexible and customizable services. The cost of overseas local customization business is high, and for customers with business ideas, they not only sell products, but also hope to realize more of their needs for products, so the rapid response ability of Chinese enterprises has become one of the advantages of promoting cooperation between the two sides.
02
There is a large gap between overseas supply and demand, and Chinese enterprises are staking their ground
Wu Xuelu, President and Chief Financial Officer of Nenglian Zhidian, once said: "China's tram and energy replenishment network ecology are leading in the world. With the leading edge of Chinese brands, it is a good opportunity for us to enter Europe with high electricity prices and higher user consumption levels.
Huang Shan, founder of Yiwa Research Institute, analyzed that the market demand is large enough and the profit is high enough, and the prospect of China's charging piles going overseas is quite broad. In overseas markets, car charging piles can enter supermarkets, shopping malls, and hardware stores to sell like ordinary goods. European and American customers are less sensitive to the price of charging piles, the price of charging piles is higher, and the price of overseas charging piles with the same power is several times the price of domestic charging piles, which can greatly improve the profitability of domestic charging pile manufacturers.
Moreover, the power resources in overseas markets are operated in a market-oriented manner, and the electricity consumption of charging piles is bound to the energy package of household electricity. In other words, a household's electricity consumption may come from multiple power grids, and the electricity consumption can be switched to the lowest electricity price at any time, especially during the trough period of electricity consumption, it will be sold at a discount, and even "negative electricity prices" will appear, which makes the use of charging piles more convenient.
In the face of the huge market cake, China's charging pile companies have rushed to the beach, and almost all capable enterprises are "going out". In recent years, upstream and downstream enterprises in the mainland charging pile industry chain, including special calls, Star Charging, Shenghong Co., Ltd., Daotong Technology, Juhua Technology, Yingjie Electric, etc., have successively deployed in overseas markets.
In the face of increasingly fierce competition, EN+ technology was still able to maintain steady growth in the first quarter of this year. According to the relevant person in charge of EN+ technology, 2024 will be a year for EN+ technology to fully bloom in the global regional market. After the company's efforts and reserves on the product side in 2023, EN+ technology will further improve the product matrix in major regional markets around the world.
In addition to the original European market, in 2024, it will strengthen its business promotion in new regional markets, such as Southeast Asia, the United States and Japan. In March this year, EN+ technology has officially obtained the certification of CHAdeMO in Japan, and the 50A-80A household and operation AC piles in North America have also been released. The next step is to give full play to the advantages of the front-end market, continue to develop regional business, reach business cooperation with local advantageous channels, and do a good job in localized services.
03
Aggressive play fails, and Chinese companies must be patient
"Involution" has intensified, the domestic charging pile market has gradually become a red ocean, and pile companies urgently need to expand new markets. However, the overseas market seems to be vibrant, but the moment it really sets foot on it, the heat wave of money rolling is also accompanied by the hardships of nuggets.
The relevant person in charge of EN+ technology bluntly said that the cake of going to sea is very big, but it is still very difficult for domestic pile enterprises. The first difficulty is that the different certifications in each region are long, expensive and varied.
For example, the cost of CE certification in Europe exceeds hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the whole process has to go through six stages: project application, data preparation, product testing, preparation of report, submission of review and issuance of certificate, and UL certification in the United States, the cost is nearly 1 million yuan, and the cycle is 7 months. In the face of certification standards and policies in different regions, Chinese pile enterprises must re-develop products to match different standards according to local conditions, and R&D costs are also rising sharply.
The second difficulty is the operation of charging piles, installation, commissioning, maintenance, etc., all need to consider local habits and needs, and at the same time, the language is not understood in various places, and communication is also difficult. For Chinese pile companies, they can only concentrate on the upstream and sell complete assemblies or parts. Even so, finding the right sales channel can be a challenge. Therefore, while doing a solid job in product strength, enterprises also need to continuously increase brand promotion in various regions around the world, enhance brand exposure, and obtain more customers.
Although China's charging piles have been sold out overseas this year, Chinese charging pile companies are still in the initial stage of exploration in overseas markets.
Huang Shan pointed out that China's charging pile companies are still mainly engaged in OEM production overseas, which means that the popularity and influence of Chinese charging pile brands in foreign markets are not enough, "we can only make some hard-earned money for OEM production." In particular, the service team of Chinese charging pile enterprises overseas is generally missing, and overseas users attach great importance to after-sales service, coupled with increasingly fierce competition, there is an unreasonable competition phenomenon of "Chinese rolling Chinese", which is even more detrimental to the construction of Chinese brands.
Industry insiders reminded that China's charging piles are still facing policy challenges when going overseas. As a core component of the new energy ecosystem, charging piles must adapt to the policy frameworks and access conditions of various countries in the process of internationalization. Stringent environmental protection standards, technical thresholds, country of origin regulations, and government procurement policies that favor local products in Europe and the United States have brought potential challenges to Chinese companies' overseas expansion in the field of charging piles.
Text: Hao Wenli Editor: Huang Xia Layout: Wang Kun
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