New energy vehicles go to the countryside to speed up again

  Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Cartography: Wang Zheping

  Recently, new energy vehicles have repeatedly received favorable policies for going to the countryside. The the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee meeting stressed that it is necessary to boost large-scale consumption such as automobiles, electronic products and homes; The "Measures on Restoring and Expanding Consumption" proposes to implement policies such as building a high-quality charging infrastructure system, supporting new energy vehicles to go to the countryside, and continuing and optimizing vehicle purchase tax reduction and exemption for new energy vehicles; The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued opinions, calling for accelerating the construction of charging infrastructure and better supporting new energy vehicles to go to the countryside and rural revitalization; The Ministry of Commerce made it clear that the "Consumption Boosting Year" would focus on key areas, and organized the activity of new energy vehicles going to the countryside in thousands of counties and towns … …

  What is the implementation of relevant policies? How to better meet the needs of the masses? How to build a supporting service system? The launching ceremony of this year’s new energy vehicles going to the countryside was held in Jingmen, Hubei Province a few days ago. The reporter conducted an investigation here.

  — — Editor

  "I deliberately got up early on weekends, and there are still many people watching cars!" The 4S shop was crowded, and Li Chengwu and his wife followed the salespeople closely. The newlyweds, who live in Levin Town, Shayang County, Jingmen City, planned to buy a new energy car at the beginning of the year, so they have to make a good choice when they go to town this time.

  In June this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and the National Energy Administration simultaneously launched the 2023 new energy vehicles going to the countryside in Wuxi, Jiangsu, Qionghai, Hainan, and Jingmen, Hubei. The model that Mr. and Mrs. Li Chengwu are interested in happens to be among them, and there are many discounts.

  The construction of charging piles goes ahead, and the market demand in counties and townships continues to be released.

  Why is China-Italy new energy vehicle? Li Chengwu and his wife calculated the account: buy a model with a battery life of 200 kilometers and charge it once a week to meet the daily travel needs; Using public fast charging facilities can save three or four thousand yuan a year compared with fuel vehicles.

  Convenient and affordable, it has become the main consideration for many customers to buy cars. Haodi Company is BYD’s general agent in Jingmen area. Chen Quan, sales manager, told reporters: "Recently, the company’s monthly turnover has stabilized at more than 200 vehicles, and many more customers have bought cars from counties and villages." It is understood that BYD originally had only two 4S stores in Jingmen, and now it is planning to open new stores in county-level cities such as Jingshan and Zhongxiang.

  Why should we promote new energy vehicles to the countryside? According to the study of electric vehicle travel in rural areas of China, by 2030, there will be nearly 160 vehicles with 1,000 people in rural areas of China, with a total of over 70 million vehicles, and the market scale may reach 500 billion yuan. Peng Yong, deputy director of Jingmen Economic and Information Bureau, said that the market penetration rate of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles is 15.9% and 10.4% in counties and villages of the city, which still has great growth potential compared with the central city.

  What is the first problem to be solved to stimulate growth potential? Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, believes that the construction of charging piles must be laid out in advance for new energy vehicles going to the countryside.

  When the reporter came to Levin Town, he met Dai Feilong, a new energy owner, in a parking lot: "Two years ago, there was a slow-filling pile in the town, and I bought a pure electric car. Now a new fast-filling pile has been built, which can be fully charged in less than an hour, which is more convenient. "

  Since 2021, State Grid Jingmen Power Supply Company has built charging facilities in 52 towns and villages in the city. This year, it has completed upgrading and expansion, and built 58 DC fast charging stations, equipped with 112 fast charging piles and 120 slow charging piles, which is the first in the province to achieve full coverage of fast charging piles in towns and villages. From January to June this year, the charging capacity of charging piles in Jingmen township increased by 182.33% year-on-year, ranking first in the province.

  "The charging piles at the entrances and exits of township expressways and popular tourist villages are used frequently, and we have added fast-filling piles." Huang Kai, head of the electric vehicle business of State Grid Jingmen Power Supply Company, believes that the charging infrastructure should be built in front, so that consumers can have no worries.

  When new energy vehicles enter the village, the demand for personal charging piles is greater. Not long ago, Yu Liangrui, a villager from Zengmiao Village, Zilingpu Town, Dongbao District, Jingmen City, applied for charging pile installation business on his mobile phone. On the same day, the staff of State Grid visited the site to complete the on-site investigation; Two days later, the charging pile was electrified. "Many families in rural areas have single-family houses and have enough space to install personal charging piles. This advantage makes it difficult for towns to compete. " Huang Kai said.

  Demand upgrade leads product iteration, and vehicle functionality is continuously enhanced.

  Set up tents, put up banners and put gifts … … In Macheng Town Square, Duodao District, Jingmen City, the off-line tour of new energy vehicles attracts residents to experience.

  For several years, Chen Quan first drove the demo car to the boundary far away from the city. "In less than half a day, the contact information of several interested customers has been added." Chen Quan said that there will be more exhibitions in towns and villages.

  Xiao Liu, a staff member of Macheng Industrial Park, bought a plug-in hybrid car two years ago. Now he is a little annoyed. "I should have bought pure electricity at the beginning." She found that the touring models not only have longer cruising range and faster charging speed, but also add practical new functions such as smart parking and digital keys.

  Compared with the early years when cars went to the countryside to mainly solve the problem of "whether there is", now with the improvement of consumption level, new energy vehicles have to solve the problem of "whether it is good or not". Chen Jintao, deputy director of the Economic and Information Bureau of Duodao District, exemplified that some middle-aged consumers are facing the demand for vehicle redemption, and whether the cruising range is sufficient is the main consideration; For young people who buy the first car, the new "gameplay" related to assisted driving and intelligent network connection is more attractive.

  The reporter consulted the catalogue of four rounds of new energy vehicles going to the countryside and found that only 10 companies and less than 20 models initially participated in the countryside, most of which were traditional car companies. This year, the number of models going to the countryside has increased to 69, which has opened up the distinction in terms of price, function and power, and some mid-to high-end models have also been included.

  Products are iterative with the upgrading of demand, and so are commercial vehicles. According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2022, the sales of new energy commercial vehicles in China accounted for about 1/10 of the total sales of commercial vehicles. The reporter learned that among commercial trucks, the micro-closed van that the masses call "micro-surface" is the mainstream model and is often used for short-distance logistics transportation.

  Liu Jun is a pure electric micro-surface user of Dongfeng Motor, who lives in Tuanlinpu Town, Duodao District. In the early morning, he drove agricultural products to the vegetable market in the city. In his spare time, he took orders to distribute food and department stores on the group buying and pulling platform, and traveled more than 100 kilometers every day. However, occasionally receiving a list of decoration building materials made him quite puzzled: "It is not easy to put a water pipe three or five meters long in the car. If only the cargo compartment were bigger. "

  For Liu Jun, the car should not only run fast but also save money and be reliable. Pan Chonggang, deputy director of the commodity planning department of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. said that the pure electric micro-surface currently sold by Dongfeng is based on the original passenger micro-surface "oil to electricity", and the loading capacity is limited. To this end, they decided to upgrade the product line and design a brand-new pure electric micro-surface model.

  The R&D team was stationed in rural areas of Zhejiang and Hubei to investigate the use scenarios such as express delivery into the village. "We found that the hillside into the village is slippery, and the car should have good handling stability and sufficient power; In order to facilitate loading and unloading, the volume of the cargo compartment should be increased to at least 5 to 6 cubic meters, and spacious side doors and tailgates are needed. " Pan Chonggang said, "The new pure electric micro-surface car has been tested and is planned to go on the market next year."

  The supply of affordable vehicles needs to be strengthened, and shortcomings such as after-sales maintenance need to be filled.

  From urban areas to counties, towns and villages, with the gradual sinking of the market, consumers need different models. The reporter found in the interview that the cruising range of 300 kilometers is too short for some urban consumers, but it may be too long in the village — — Many villagers make a living by farming or small businesses, and are unwilling to pay for miles they don’t need.

  Zheng Peng, secretary-general of Hubei Electric Vehicle Circulation Association, said that the models purchased by county and township consumers are mainly A00-class mini new energy vehicles and A0-class small new energy vehicles, accounting for about 60% to 70%, and the price ranges from 50,000 to 80,000 yuan.

  "For some consumers who only need to travel instead of walking, electric three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles are more attractive; For fellow villagers with production needs, the cargo capacity of new energy trucks is generally small, and there are not many optional brands of commercial vehicles such as pickup trucks, light trucks and micro-noodles. " Zheng Peng suggested that relevant enterprises should reduce costs and increase efficiency from product design, supply chain and other aspects, develop more "explosive" products for the rural market, and constantly explore the market "blue ocean".

  What aspects can be improved to promote new energy vehicles to the countryside?

  The charging facilities in township areas are scattered, and the construction and management costs are high. Huang Kai opens the monitoring page of the charging station in the operation center of State Grid Vehicle Networking Platform on the computer, and four colored circles indicate the utilization rate, failure rate, offline rate and charging success rate of the station. He admits that in the past year, the supply of slow filling piles in towns and villages in the city has exceeded demand, and the utilization rate is generally not high; However, in the peak period of returning home such as the Spring Festival, the demand for fast filling piles is in short supply.

  According to estimates, according to the calculation of adding 6,000 new energy vehicles every year in Jingmen City, the centralized charging load in the city will reach 250,000 kilowatts in 2030. "There are more and more users installing personal charging piles now. Adding a slow-filling pile is equivalent to adding four 1.5-horse air conditioners, which greatly improves the requirements for transformer capacity. " Huang Kai is worried that the relatively weak rural power grid is difficult to load.

  At the same time, the blocking point of after-sales maintenance also needs to be cleared. Some car owners report that many auto repair shops can’t repair new energy vehicles. Zheng Peng introduced that the maintenance of fuel vehicles is mainly mechanical maintenance, while the maintenance of new energy vehicles is mainly in battery circuits, and having an electrician’s operation certificate is the basic threshold. At present, there is a market gap of more than 40% for technicians who are proficient in "three electricity" maintenance such as batteries, motors and electronic control systems.

  Focusing on the bottleneck problem that restricts new energy vehicles from going to the countryside, relevant measures are being improved from top-level design to local practice. The "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure to Better Support New Energy Vehicles to the Countryside and Rural Revitalization" puts forward 11 specific measures in three aspects, and strives to promote new energy vehicles to the countryside by moderately advancing the construction of charging infrastructure and optimizing the purchase and use environment of new energy vehicles. "Some vocational schools in Hubei Province have set up new energy auto repair majors, and the Provincial Electric Vehicle Circulation Association is also carrying out new energy auto repair technician training business, and plans to jointly develop and launch new energy vehicle battery maintenance standards with insurance companies." Zheng Peng said that the road will be smoother when new energy vehicles go to the countryside.

Meet the demand of over 20 million electric vehicles by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan —— Build charging infrastructure moderately ahead of schedule.

A few days ago, the National Development and Reform Commission and other 10 departments jointly issued opinions to further enhance the service support capability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and made it clear that by the end of the "Tenth Five-Year Plan", China will form a moderately advanced, balanced, intelligent and efficient charging infrastructure system, which can meet the charging needs of more than 20 million electric vehicles.

According to the data of China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance), by the end of 2021, the number of public and private charging piles in China totaled 2.617 million, up 70.1% year-on-year. Tong Zongqi, director of the Alliance Information Department, said that the popularization of China’s charging infrastructure is very fast, and there will be a major breakthrough in 2022, and the service capability will be the core of the future competition in the charging infrastructure industry.

Private charging piles should be the main force

The data shows that in 2021, the number of charging piles installed on the vehicle in China reached 597,000, up 323.9% year-on-year, more than three times. Private charging piles are convenient to use, and the charging price is charged according to the civil electricity price standard of "combined users", which is relatively more favorable. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, believes that home charging is the development trend, and the overall structure of the future charging infrastructure should be mainly private charging piles, supplemented by public charging piles.

However, according to statistics and surveys, about 50% of car owners in China are unable to install charging piles in their communities at present, mainly because of "selfless home parking spaces" and "community properties are not allowed".

Tong Zongqi said that there are four main ways to solve the problem of residents charging in the community at this stage. First, unified construction and management, developers should do a good job in planning and unified construction management when building new communities; The second is the sharing of private piles; The third is to build public charging facilities in the community; The fourth is to build a storage and filling integrated station or a storage and filling integrated pile.

At present, special supporting policies have been issued in many places in terms of unified construction and management and private pile sharing. The Beijing Urban Management Committee recently drafted the Opinions on Strengthening the Construction and Management of Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities in Residential Areas, and solicited opinions from the society. The exposure draft proposes to strictly implement the proportion of charging facilities in new residential areas. The newly-built residential area project should strictly follow the planning and design standards to implement the requirements for the proportion of charging facilities or the expected installation conditions, and include the construction of charging facilities in the scope of project acceptance. The exposure draft also proposes that Beijing will provide power supporting services while accelerating the construction of charging facilities in residential areas, and encourage the sharing and utilization of self-use charging piles.

Many enterprises have made substantial progress in the construction of public charging facilities in residential areas. Kang Yong, chairman of Dupu (Suzhou) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. told the reporter that since the establishment of the first Dupu E station in November 2020, the company’s related business has developed very fast. Up to now, it has covered more than 400 middle and high-end communities in China, and it is expected to cover more than 2,000 communities in 2022. In this regard, Tong Zongqi said that the unified construction of community public piles by operation service providers can not only effectively make up for the gap of private piles, but also facilitate the car owners to charge nearby, which is worth promoting.

Public charging piles are relatively concentrated.

There is a public charging station near the South Fourth Ring Road in Beijing, which mainly provides energy replenishment services for new energy vehicles in the surrounding Xinfadi market and several residential areas. Even in the early hours, the utilization rate here is basically maintained at 100%.

Li Cheng, who lives nearby, often comes here to charge his car. He told reporters that the overall feeling is that the distribution of charging piles in Beijing is relatively concentrated, with more urban areas and fewer suburbs, more charging piles in new facilities and fewer charging piles in old communities.

Centralized layout is not only the reality of Beijing, but also the current distribution of public charging piles in China. Judging from the alliance data, it is mainly reflected in two aspects. One is the relative concentration of regions. From a national perspective, the number of public charging piles in the top ten regions accounts for over 70%. The other is that operators are relatively concentrated.

By the end of 2021, the number of public charging piles operated by national charging operation enterprises exceeded 100,000, including Star Charging, Special Call, State Grid and Yunkuai Charging. The total number of public charging piles in these four head enterprises reached 850,000, accounting for 74% of the total.

According to the relevant person in charge of TELD New Energy Co., Ltd., up to now, the accumulated charging capacity of the company has exceeded 11 billion kWh. At the same time, the country’s largest Internet cloud platform for charging industry has been built, with 350,000 charging piles connected to the platform, with an average daily charging capacity of 12 million kWh and 15,000 service enterprises.

Tong Zongqi said that the public charging field is divided into two types: B-end operating vehicles and C-end private cars, and B-end vehicles generally have their own charging stations or fixed charging stations. The charging problem of this part of the car has been basically solved. At present, the problem mainly focuses on the difficulty of charging people’s own cars. This requires car owners to plan in advance, and also requires relevant operating companies to gradually improve their services.

Double the number of power stations

The main way to replenish energy for new energy vehicles is to change electricity. In the past two years, the power exchange mode has been heating up, and even Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, a battery head enterprise, has recently announced that it will cut into the power exchange track.

By the end of 2021, there were 1,298 power stations in the top ten areas of China, which doubled compared with 2020. The top three operators are Weilai, Aodong and Hangzhou Botan. In the past year, Weilai has obviously accelerated the construction of power stations, with an increase of 614 power stations in 2021.

At the policy level, power exchange has also ushered in new benefits. On February 10th, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Opinions on Improving the System, Mechanism and Policy Measures of Green and Low-carbon Energy Transformation, demanding to improve the clean alternative policy of energy in the transportation field. We will promote large-capacity electrified public transport and clean energy vehicles such as electricity, hydrogen energy, advanced bio-liquid fuel and natural gas, improve the layout and service facilities of charging and replacing electricity, hydrogenation and gas filling (LNG) stations, and reduce the energy cost of clean energy in the transportation field.

Tongzongqi analyzed that for enterprises, changing power stations requires high construction costs and maintenance costs. Generally speaking, power exchange may be more suitable for the commercial field, and it plays a more auxiliary role in the C-end market.

Cui Dongshu also said that the power exchange mode can bring good experience to high-end users and users in special scenes such as mines. However, the disadvantages are also obvious. Because there is almost no room for expansion of the structural freedom of the battery in vehicle design, it is very difficult to adapt all models.

Tong Zongqi believes that the travel scenarios and charging requirements of different models are different, and the charging infrastructure is also different. More attention should be paid to how the charging scenarios can serve more car owners.

"Overall, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, there are many new opportunities in the field of charging and replacing electricity." Cui Dongshu said that the competition of charging and replacing systems in some places is fierce, which will also promote the development of new energy automobile industry in China to some extent. (Reporter Liu Wei)