The era of "one kilometer per second" is coming, has the problem of profitability in the charging industry been solved?

Interface News Reporter | Dai Jingjing

"We think the inflection point has arrived...... The market is exploding right now. ”

On April 18, Wang Lei, senior vice president of Star Charging and CEO of China, described the supply and demand situation of China's liquid-cooled supercharging market to Jiemian News. On the same day, Star Charging held a press conference on "0 Yuan Upgrade Supercharging Era" in Chongqing, and announced at the meeting that the supercharging era has arrived.

Star Charging is the leading operator in the field of charging piles in China, operating 509,900 public charging piles as of March this year, ranking second in the country, second only to special calls.

With the increase in the penetration rate of new energy trams and the growth of energy supplement demand, the performance requirements for charging piles are also increasing. "Overcharging" refers to charging equipment that is faster than "fast charging", and there is no national unified standard definition, and at present, Shenzhen has clarified that equipment with a single gun power of 480 kilowatts and above is overcharged. Fast charging generally refers to a charging method that can make the battery reach or close to a fully charged state within 1-2 hours.

There are three main types of heat dissipation for charging piles: air cooling, liquid cooling and natural heat dissipation, among which liquid cooling is regarded by the industry as the mainstream of the development of supercharging piles in the next few years. For example, in April last year, Huawei launched a fully liquid-cooled supercharging pile with a maximum output power of 600 kilowatts and a maximum current of 600A, saying that its charging speed can reach "one kilometer per second".

At present, the Star Charging "Supercharge" products support a 1000V high-voltage platform, with a maximum power of 960 kilowatts, a rated current of 600A and a maximum current output of 800A, which can achieve the energy supplement effect of "charging for 3 minutes and lasting 400 miles".

Wang Lei told Jiemian News that Star Charging's overall plan in liquid-cooled supercharging this year is more aggressive, and will be promoted in 126 cities, and plans to upgrade 10,000 charging stations into supercharging stations containing liquid-cooled terminals in 2024.

The rapid growth of vehicles supporting liquid-cooled supercharging is an important reason why Wang Lei believes that the era of supercharging is coming. He mentioned that this year, a major domestic battery supplier will join forces with various car companies to release more than 60 models with more than 800 volts.

In January this year, Wang Zhiwu, President of Huawei's Smart Charging Network Domain, said at the 2024 Top Ten Trends in Smart Charging Network Conference that with the increasing maturity of third-generation power semiconductors and high-rate power batteries represented by silicon carbide and gallium nitride, electric vehicles are accelerating their development in the direction of high-voltage supercharging. It is estimated that by 2028, the proportion of high-voltage overcharging vehicles will exceed 60%.

In recent years, Guangzhou, Hainan and Shenzhen have rushed to issue policies to support the construction of supercharging piles. At the beginning of April this year, the General Office of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government issued the "Chongqing New Energy Vehicle Convenient Overcharging Action Plan (2024-2025)", proposing to build a "1-kilometer overcharging circle", and by the end of 2025, more than 2,000 overcharging stations and more than 4,000 supercharging piles will be built.

Players represented by car companies have actively entered the game. Previously, Xpeng Motors had said that it hoped to build another 2,000 supercharging stations by 2025 and 5,000 ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2027, and Li Auto also planned to build more than 2,000 high-speed and urban supercharging stations by the end of this year.

Although the construction of supercharging is expected to accelerate, the investment of charging pile operators still needs to solve the pain points such as difficulty in ensuring recovery and single revenue model.

According to the research report of CICC Securities, the construction of a station with eight 120 kilowatt charging piles, the cost of a single pile equipment is 0.5 yuan/W, the comprehensive construction cost is 1.3 yuan/W, and the service life of the charging pile is 10 years, assuming that the small industrial and commercial owners have better land resources and the utilization rate of the single pile reaches 12%, and the rental income of the single pile is 32,000 yuan/year, and the final calculation shows that the payback period is 4.9 years, and the charging operator generally needs 3-5 years to reach the profit cycle.

Supercharging stations face higher costs. Wang Lei also bluntly said that liquid-cooled supercharging means that the power demand and surplus capacitance of the site will be larger, and the investment in hardware will be greater.

"The capacity of the power distribution cabinet after the station supports liquid-cooled overcharging is actually very large, and if the actual charging demand of 300 kilowatts is not exceeded for a large number of time periods, it means that the return on investment cycle of the entire station will become very long. Wang Lei pointed out that Star Charging is based on various algorithm models and management systems to support site selection and station operation.

Charging scenarios to enter the power market and carry out energy operations are also potential profit channels for charging pile companies to consider.

Niu Lei, general manager of the Star Charging Energy Carbon Business Center, said at the press conference on April 18 that the charging scenario has the probability of doing secondary power regulation in the market, and obtain additional benefits from electricity trading, virtual power plant subsidy income, and participation in peak shaving or demand response.

From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the formation of a supercharging alliance has become a general trend of resource sharing and cost reduction.

As early as 2022, a number of car companies such as Dahe New Energy, FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, Jiangqi, Chery, Great Wall and BAIC Blue Valley announced the launch of the China New Automobile Supercharging Alliance, and gradually expanded to 28 companies, including Xiaopeng Motors, NIO, Li Auto, etc.

In May 2022, Telai and Guangzhou Juwan Technology Co., Ltd. signed a strategic cooperation agreement, planning to jointly build 1,000 supercharging stations across the country by 2025.

In November last year, China State Construction Science and Industry Group Co., Ltd., together with 20 industry leading enterprises, scientific research institutions and industry associations such as China Green Building and Energy Conservation (Hong Kong) Committee and Huawei Digital Power Technology Co., Ltd., jointly established the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Super Charging Industry Alliance.

In January this year, Sinopec Jiangsu Petroleum Branch and Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd., the parent company of Star Charging, jointly established Sinopec Wanbang New Energy (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., was officially unveiled.

At the press conference on April 18, Star Charging signed a cooperation agreement and a letter of intent with GCL Group, the Management Committee of the High-tech Zone of the People's Government of Qijiang District, the Shaxing Industrial Development Group of the Western Science City, and the Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park, to cooperate in the construction of the park's microgrid, the construction of the new energy vehicle MALL project, and the joint construction of the virtual power plant in the sand area.

It is worth noting that on April 24, Huawei Digital Power will also hold the 2024 Smart Electric & Smart Charging Network Strategy and New Product Launch Conference and the Launching Ceremony of the Supercharging Alliance.