How to overcome the charging "hurdle" when new energy vehicles are brought to the countryside
The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "On Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure to Better Support New Energy Vehicles" The "Implementation Opinions on Going to the Rural Areas and Rural Revitalization" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions") were officially announced, proposing to innovate the construction, operation and maintenance model of charging infrastructure in rural areas and support the purchase and use of new energy vehicles in rural areas.
This is another favorable policy for bringing new energy vehicles to the countryside. Since the beginning of this year, there have been frequent policy changes, and supporting new energy vehicles in rural areas has been elevated to the level of a national strategy. However, at present, there are still pain points such as the lagging behind in the construction of charging facilities in rural counties in my country that need to be solved. New energy vehicles urgently need to overcome the "hurdle" of charging facilities when going to the countryside.
New energy vehicles go to the countryside to speed up
People who drove new energy vehicles from Beijing back to their hometown of Gansu attracted the attention of many fellow villagers. He found that more and more people in rural areas are now willing to buy new energy vehicles, and some mid-to-high-end models are also entering the homes of ordinary villagers. Looking at the current situation, automobile consumption has become the "bulk" supporting my country's consumption, and new energy vehicles are an important driving force for the growth of automobile sales. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of new energy vehicles have reached a total of 2.291 million and 2.222 million units, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 42.8%, and a market share of 27%.
“At this stage, the differences in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles across various regions are relatively obvious. Compared with urban areas, there is still much room for improvement in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in county and township markets.” Xiamen University A professor at the China Energy Economic Research Center said in an interview with reporters. The Secretary-General of the Passenger Car Association believes that with the gradual improvement of the overall market structure in the future, promoting the popularization of new energy vehicles in the county and township markets will be a major market opportunity and a huge blue ocean.
The "Research on Electric Vehicle Travel in Rural Areas in China" released by the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association predicts that by 2030, there will be nearly 160 cars per 1,000 people in rural areas of China, and the total number of cars will exceed 70 million. If it can meet the motorized travel needs of rural residents in the future, it will leverage a 500 billion yuan automobile market. The policy of bringing new energy vehicles to rural areas is blowing frequently. The No. 1 Central Document issued at the beginning of the year pointed out that areas with favorable conditions are encouraged to carry out new energy vehicles and green smart home appliances to the countryside. The State Council executive meeting held proposed to accelerate the construction of charging infrastructure to better support the introduction of new energy vehicles into the countryside and rural revitalization.
The "Implementation Opinions" announced this time are the specific implementation of the content deployed by the Executive Meeting of the State Council, including strengthening the layout and construction of public charging infrastructure, promoting the construction of community charging infrastructure, 11 specific measures including increasing support for the construction and operation of charging networks. With the multiple benefits of a vast market and policy support, car companies are also actively planning to occupy more shares in the rural market. Recently, Chery New Energy launched a preferential car purchase policy of "1,000 yuan/unit subsidy for QQ ice cream going to the countryside", and domestic automobile companies such as BYD, Changan, and Leapmotor have also begun to actively deploy related work.
Difficulties in charging facilities need to be solved
It is worth noting that the current deployment of new energy vehicles in rural areas still faces some constraints, and insufficient charging infrastructure is one of the "stumbling blocks." Data released by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance show that the cumulative number of charging infrastructure nationwide is 6.092 million units, a year-on-year increase of 95.9%. The increase in charging infrastructure was 882,000 units, of which the increase in public charging piles increased by 167.7% year-on-year, and the number of private charging piles built with vehicles increased by 60.8% year-on-year. Referring to the increase in new energy vehicles nationwide during the same period, the increase ratio of pile vehicles is 1:2.5. The construction of charging infrastructure can basically meet the needs of the rapid development of new energy vehicles.
In the face of the huge increase brought by new energy vehicles going to the countryside and the relatively dispersed rural population and vehicles, it is pointed out that, overall, the current construction of rural charging infrastructure is lagging behind, and the development of new energy vehicle charging Rapidity and convenience need to be improved urgently; at the same time, related new energy vehicle operation, repair and maintenance services are not perfect enough, making it difficult to meet the after-sales needs of rural users.
According to industry insiders, the current construction of public charging infrastructure in county and rural areas lacks layout planning, the overall number is small, the distribution is uneven, and the layout is unreasonable. Some stations have no car charging, and some There are no charging piles in the area. Only a small number of charging facilities are built in central areas of towns, power supply stations, government agencies and individual scenic spots. There is a demand for operational electric vehicle charging in counties and townships close to urban areas, as well as the return of "distant people" during holidays. It is difficult to meet the charging demand generated by traveling or traveling, which presents a contradiction between the layout of charging facilities and the demand for charging services in time and space. The reason behind this is that there are many pain points in the construction of charging facilities in rural counties and villages, such as difficulty in land use, electricity use, service, and profitability.
The reporter learned during the research and interview that the current number of new energy vehicles in rural areas is low, and the utilization rate of charging facilities is low. Due to the vast rural area, high operating and maintenance costs of charging facilities, and poor return on investment, charging operations are There is insufficient willingness for business investment and construction. "At present, new energy vehicles are gradually popularizing in rural areas. In the early stage, there will be problems such as low social investment willingness, difficulty in making profits, and complex external operating environments in remote areas, which will lead to greater pressure to maintain equipment safety and stability." said a person in charge of China Southern Power Grid. .
In the view of the vice president of Energy Chain Smart Electric, there are three major problems in installing public charging piles in rural areas: construction land, electricity and services. He explained that the construction of public charging piles and stations requires corresponding land procedures, while rural land is mostly collective land and requires policy support to include collective land in the scope of charging pile construction. At the same time, rural construction of charging piles, especially high-power fast charging piles, requires a certain amount of power capacity support. Public transformers in towns and villages often cannot meet the demand, which requires enterprises to invest in large quantities of construction, which will cause a greater economic burden. , you can give priority to using small-power DC fast charging or AC slow charging piles to meet the basic usage needs of new energy vehicles.
The construction of private charging piles in rural areas of the county also faces difficulties. At present, some old communities have no fixed parking spaces and cannot install private charging piles; some existing residential communities lack coordination for the connection of charging piles, and the problem of corridors between charging pile installation locations and power points is difficult to solve; some new residential communities have not implemented the construction requirements. Only the charging pile access capacity has been reserved in the distribution transformer, and supporting meter boxes and bridge facilities have not been built, and the conditions for "direct installation of meters and power connections" are not met.
Multi-dimensional efforts should be made to make up for shortcomings
The State Council executive meeting emphasized that it is necessary to focus on the outstanding bottlenecks that restrict new energy vehicles from going to the countryside, build charging infrastructure appropriately ahead of schedule, and innovate the construction of charging infrastructure , operation and maintenance model to ensure that it is "built, managed and sustainable". In the construction phase, the focus is on public charging facilities and community charging facilities. The "Implementation Opinions" propose to accelerate the realization of "full county coverage" of charging stations and "full township coverage" of charging piles in areas suitable for the use of new energy vehicles.
Priority will be given to configuring public charging facilities in county and township enterprises and institutions, commercial buildings, transportation hubs (stations), service areas (stations) along highways, etc., and relocation to centralized resettlement areas. , rural tourism key villages and other extensions. At the same time, we will accelerate the transformation of charging facilities construction conditions in existing rural residential communities according to local conditions, implement the requirements for charging infrastructure construction in new residential communities, and continue to promote the construction of charging infrastructure for maximum enjoyment.
More private capital can be encouraged to participate in the construction of rural charging infrastructure, and combined with the favorable conditions for the development of distributed photovoltaics in rural areas, the test and promotion of the integrated development model of "photovoltaics, energy storage, and vehicle charging" can be accelerated. The relevant person in charge of China Southern Power Grid suggested that the construction of comprehensive charging service stations integrating "optical storage, charging and swapping" and other multiple innovations should be encouraged to meet the diverse needs of rural consumers and enrich the profit model of charging pile stations. In the operation phase, the focus is to increase support for the construction and operation of charging networks. The "Implementation Opinions" clarify that local special bonds and other tools should be used to support the construction of qualified charging and swapping infrastructure, carry out the construction and transformation of supporting power grids, and enhance the support and support capabilities of rural power grids.
Before 2030, demand (capacity) electricity fees will be waived for centralized charging and swapping facilities that implement a two-part electricity price system, and investment efficiency constraints will be relaxed for the construction of distribution networks related to power grid enterprises, and all of them will be included Transmission and distribution price recovery.
Encourage qualified places to introduce special support policies for the construction and operation of public charging infrastructure in rural areas. With the strong support of national policies, the "sinking" of new energy vehicle charging services into rural areas has become one of the important trends in industry development.
State Grid has actively invested in the construction of public charging facilities, and currently has a total of 150,100 public charging piles in operation, including 49,000 in counties and below. "For personal charging pile installation applications, we have launched a 'connected service' service to open up the service process between the electricity office platform and the car company platform. When customers purchase a car at a 4S store, they can apply for the charging pile connection service." Relevant person in charge of the State Grid Tell reporters.
China Southern Power Grid has invested more than 7 billion yuan in total to vigorously promote the construction of charging infrastructure and proposes to achieve full coverage of charging piles in towns and villages. As of May 8, China has built 13,000 charging stations and 90,000 charging piles, covering all cities at the county level and above in the five southern provinces and regions including Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hainan, and covering more than nine towns and villages. Nearly 4,000 township charging stations and nearly 20,000 charging piles have been built.
In addition, in the operation process, State Grid actively promotes technological innovation and cooperates in-depth with relevant parties such as car companies, pile companies, operators, and testing institutions to establish a charging standard system with China’s independent intellectual property rights. We have successfully developed and widely used a variety of charging equipment from AC and DC ranging from 7 kW to 480 kW, and innovatively launched a new generation of ChaoJi charging technology, which can support a maximum charging power of 900 kW. State Grid has also built a smart car networking platform for target customers such as car owners, car companies, operators, and traffic service providers, with a total of more than 2.3 million charging piles and more than 19 million registered users.
China Southern Power Grid has built a charging operation service platform. Currently, the platform has access to 692,000 charging piles nationwide, nearly 200 operators, and 602,000 vehicle piles for other operating entities. It provides undifferentiated system access services with 4.4 million registered users, benefiting many car owners in towns and rural areas. Since the beginning of this year, the charging capacity of the platform has reached 360 million kWh, a year-on-year increase of 77%, and a total of 16.67 million vehicle trips have been completed.
“We attach great importance to the operation and maintenance management of charging piles to ensure that they are built, managed and sustainable.” The relevant person in charge of China Southern Power Grid said that all charging piles built are connected to the charging operation service platform. Realize the digital operation and maintenance of all self-operated charging piles, set charging pile online rate, one-time charging success rate and other indicators, and use the charging operation monitoring system to monitor 24 hours a day to ensure the normal operation and charging efficiency of charging piles.