Has the second spring charging pile come?

To observe whether a track is on fire, there are several inaccurate but well-understood indicators: Is there a price war? Did a giant come in? Is there any large-scale financing?

Judging from these indicators, the current charging pile industry is indeed on fire again. The reason for the fire is that the charging pile industry has been on fire.

In 20 14, after the state grid opened the charging pile facilities market to the society, there was a wave of social capital entering the charging pile market. On 20 18, a number of head charging pile enterprises closed down for sale, which put the fire that the industry had just ignited at risk of being doused.

Since the second half of last year, under the dual drive of policy and market, the charging pile market has once again started the acceleration mode, and the flame of the industry is getting stronger and stronger.

Price war, high financing, skyrocketing charging piles.

Price war is a weather vane to measure the heat of an industry. From e-commerce to * * * enjoying bicycle and online car prices, to online education that has recently died down, all industries that sit on the cusp are all related to price wars without exception. In the past six months, the charging pile industry has also staged a price war.

The national team went out in person and started a price war, which was forced by peers.

At the end of 2020, Evergrande's Star Network Charging Link was officially launched, with a subsidy of hundreds of millions. All charging piles on the platform are free of service charges at any time. This move is simple and rude, but effective. A month later, the peak charging capacity of Luo Xing Chargelink exceeded 2.5 million kWh per day, and by April 26th this year, the index had doubled to10 million kWh.

The next step is naturally follow-up. From April 26th to April 30th, Xiao Ju Charging, a subsidiary of Didi, announced that it would start charging preferential activities in 29 cities across the country: charging service fee 1, and 9.9 yuan with a total value could get 99 yuan coupons.

Followed by the supervision of relevant departments. In June this year, the Charging Facilities Branch of Shaanxi Electric Power Industry Association convened a forum for Internet platform enterprises such as Xiao Ju Charging, Luo Xing Charging, Express Charging, New Electronic Channel (Alipay) and Yunkuai Charging to rectify the price war in Shaanxi charging market. Starting from June 15, the "price war" that disturbs the market, such as sales promotion and subsidies below the cost price, will be punished in Shaanxi.

Behind the price war, the giants took the initiative to "land on the beach." At present, various giants related to charging piles have gathered together, which can be roughly divided into these categories: First, the main engine factory, mainstream players of electric vehicles have built their own charging networks; Second, housing enterprises, Evergrande, China Shipping, etc. Building charging piles around community destinations; Third, energy enterprises, such as special calls and star charging; Third, Internet companies, such as Didi Chuxing's Xiao Ju Charging, Alipay's new circuit, and Express Power in the energy chain, except Xiao Ju Charging's self-built electric piles, are mostly third-party aggregation charging platforms.

All the giants are optimistic about the broad prospects of the industry. According to the latest data, by the end of June 20021year, the number of new energy vehicles in China had reached 6.03 million, of which pure electric vehicles accounted for 8 1.7%, with a total of 4.93 million. Accordingly, as of June 20021year, there were 923,000 public charging piles in China. Including private charging piles, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in China is 6.5438+0.947 million.

Five million new energy vehicles correspond to two million charging piles. According to Sun Fengchun, an academician of China Academy of Engineering and a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, in 2030, the number of new energy vehicles in China will reach more than 80 million. Obviously, the charging pile market is like a marathon that has just started. There is still a long way to go in the future and huge room for growth.

In particular, the introduction of favorable policies has further warmed up the charging pile track. On May 20th, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Further Improving the Service Support Capacity of Charging and Replacing Infrastructure (Draft for Comment)" to further clear the obstacles for the construction of charging piles.

With the soaring popularity of the industry, charging pile-related enterprises are also on the rise, welcoming a new wave of financing. In May and June this year, within two months, six charging pile-related enterprises, including Yunkuai Charging, TELD, Yiwei Energy, Star Charging, Ke Sheng Energy and CLP Zhigu, obtained financing, of which TELD raised 300 million yuan and Yiwei Energy raised no less than 350 million yuan. Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., ProLogis, China Power Investment Corporation, Three Gorges Group, Gaoying Capital, IDG and many other well-known institutions have invested.

The entry of giants and the influx of capital ... In any case, the rising momentum of charging pile enterprises has already risen. However, behind the fiery track, there are many serious problems to be solved urgently. Moreover, although the charging pile industry is not long, there are many roller coasters. Will you avoid the pit where you once fell this time?

Profitability is difficult, experience is poor, and the lessons from the past are not far away.

After the last short fire, the charging pile industry immediately ushered in a trough.

According to the data of Ai Media, by the end of 20 16, there were more than 600 "pile enterprises" in China, and by the first half of 20 1000. However, since 20 18, the situation has gone from bad to worse. First, at the beginning of the year, the charging network technology company was exposed to stop operating due to the break of the capital chain; Subsequently, in March, Judian Network was acquired by Shenzhen Wall for 48.776% of the shares for 8 million yuan, becoming its largest shareholder. In July, Fudian Green Energy, the "first share" of the long-term profitable new three-board charging pile, announced its delisting; A few days later, Shenzhen Yi Rong Electric Co., Ltd. could not continue to operate due to continuous losses, and was dissolved according to law and entered the liquidation procedure. ......

From mid-2065438 to mid-2008, there were only more than 500 "pile enterprises". By the beginning of 2020, this number has become more than 100. This means that in the first peak period of charging pile construction, the survival rate is only 10%.

There are many reasons for the closure of these enterprises. Although there are external factors such as insufficient new energy vehicles, imperfect relevant policies and difficult property coordination, internal factors such as lack of refined operation, poor charging experience of users and single profit model are the main reasons. According to the research report of TF Securities, the average static investment return period of operating charging piles is 5.74-9.57 years. During this period, enterprises are faced with problems such as aging of charging piles and large-scale capital injection. If they can't establish a healthy financial model, they will face serious survival pressure.

According to the data, as of June, 2002 1 1, a total of1charging enterprises operated more than 10000 charging piles, among which the top ones were 220000 special calls, 202000 star chargers and State Grid 196000. These enterprises are definitely stronger than those that fell in the first wave of 20 18, and they face a better external market environment, including the number of electric vehicles and policy support. But embarrassingly, the key internal factors that led to the first wave of enterprise failures, such as poor user experience, imprecise operation and single profit, have not been solved.

Shao Danwei, chairman of Star Charging, said in 2020, "Star Charging is the only charging company that continues to make profits so far." In fact, the vast majority of enterprises in the charging pile industry are indeed in a state of loss, or struggling on the breakeven line. Yu Dexiang, chairman of TELD, publicly stated that "TELD has invested 7 billion yuan in charging, and accumulated losses of 65.438+0.2 billion in previous years, and now it has just entered the break-even period." From 20 18 to 2020, the loss of special calls was1360,000 yuan,1/0 million yuan and 77.696 million yuan respectively.

The income of charging pile enterprises mainly comes from electricity and service fees, but the cost includes electric pile construction, site rent, daily operation labor, marketing and maintenance expenses and so on. New energy and charging piles, seemingly tall, used to be the same as selling vegetables in the vegetable market, doing the business of "charging a few cents at a time" and earning hard money. Star Charging Henan Company once built a public charging station with 120 charging parking space in Zhengzhou, with a total investment of about 8 million yuan. With such a high investment, you can only rely on a few gross profits to slowly return to your capital.

Moreover, drivers are very sensitive to prices. As soon as the price reduction activity at one station is over, he will go to other places to charge. As a result, the number of users and charging capacity of charging pile enterprises do not necessarily increase exponentially with the increase of the number of charging piles, and even decrease due to the subsidy of competing products.

At the same time, the overall utilization rate of charging piles is not high. Liu Yongdong, director of the Standardization Management Center of China Electric Power Enterprise Federation, once said that the average utilization rate of electric energy in China's public charging pile industry is only about 4%, and the utilization rate must reach 10%- 15% to achieve profitability.

Embarrassed, the construction speed of charging piles is accelerated, and the utilization rate of charging piles is not high, but car owners still find it difficult to charge, charging is slow and the experience is poor. The disadvantages of "emphasizing construction over operation" are still obvious. At present, although some enterprises have begun to try to add catering, shopping, after-car service and other functions in the offline charging scene to expand profit points and cultivate differentiation ability, the real effect remains to be discussed.

The experience and lessons of the wave of charging pile enterprises that closed down on 20 18 are worth learning. In the absence of a healthy profit model, most of them are doomed because of financial problems.

Today's charging pile industry has invested more funds and resources without effectively solving the original problems. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for the industry is hard to say at present. But what is certain is that it will bring a new round of industry reshuffle.

Concluding remarks

Charging piles for electric vehicles are listed as one of the seven new infrastructure projects, and their future development prospects are beyond doubt.

If a wave of enterprises in 20 18 are martyrs, testing water for the charging pile industry is the preface. Therefore, in today's capital and resources close to the head enterprises, the more powerful head enterprises will really open the curtain of the development of the charging pile industry, which is the text.

At present, the charging pile industry is still in the initial stage of marathon running. The first echelon is sprinting for listing, and the second echelon may catch up with the first echelon because of the influx of more capital. At the moment when the number of electric vehicles is only 5 million, the industry pattern of charging piles is far from certain.

Yu Dexiang once told the media that the number of charging operators will probably not exceed 10 in the future, and as time goes by, there will be three to five charging operators staying in the industry. And in his view, the window of industry development has been less than three years, and it may be closed by the end of 20021.

I don't know who will win, but it must be those enterprises that can solve the disadvantages of the industry and lead the industry on the right track.