The charging pile industry under the new energy vent is ushering in an explosion, and the brutal expansion of capital has caused the charging pile cemetery

The holiday is almost over, but in the afternoon of weekdays, the traffic of Beijing Crab Island Resort is still very large. Enter from the east gate of Xiedao Resort. On both sides of Xiedao Road, which is less than 500 meters away, there are passenger-carrying buses, private cars coming from other places by car, and the majority of Beijing local cars, of which fuel vehicles account for 9%. Become more than.

Next to these vehicles, every 3-4 meters, there will be an electric vehicle charging pile labeled "Star Charging". On Xiedao Road, which is about 500 meters long, there are more than 250 such charging piles neatly arranged on both sides of the road. At the same time, more than 40 charging piles of the same brand were installed in an abandoned parking lot at the east gate of Xiedao. According to the nameplate on the charging piles, the factory date of these charging piles is February 2016, and the manufacturer is Jiangsu Wanbangdehe New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

More than two years ago, along with the expansion of Xingxing charging, more than 300 charging piles departed from Jiangsu and passed 1030 kilometers of long-distance transportation. They were installed in a high-density Beijing Xiedao Resort near the airport expressway; more than two years later, these charging stations The vast majority of piles have become "zombie piles" that no one cares about.

Among them, some of the charging piles on Xiedao Road are damaged, some have "faulty" yellow lights, some are wrapped in plastic bags with exposed wires, and some have even been entangled by vines because they have not been used for a long time. , The remaining pile site utilization rate is less than 1%. According to statistics from the National Energy Administration, the current utilization rate of charging piles in the entire industry is around 15%, and industry professionals generally believe that the utilization rate of charging piles must reach 30% or more to make a profit.

In addition, in the abandoned parking lot of Dongmen, the wreckage of more than a dozen new energy buses destroyed by a fire last winter is still there. Next to the rusty bus body are more than 40 AC charging piles that have been completely idle. At night, the power indicator lights of some charging piles in the weeds will flash red, which means that these abandoned piles are "zombie piles" with normal charging functions.

It now appears that Xiedao, a demonstration site of Xingxing charging in Beijing, has become a "cemetery" for charging piles. And behind the cemetery is a brutal expansion similar to the sharing economy, spawned by capital.

Beginning in 2014, a number of automobile OEMs have begun to deploy in the field of new energy vehicles, especially in the field of pure electric vehicles. With the strategic adjustment of upstream OEMs, the downstream charging pile industry has also ushered in an explosion.

Especially in July 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission promulgated the "Notice on Issues Concerning Electric Vehicle Electricity Price Policies", which proposed to implement large-scale implementation of centralized charging and swapping facilities that directly report to power grid operating companies for power usage. Industrial electricity prices, after the basic electricity fee is temporarily waived before 2020, manufacturers and operators of charging piles, large and small, have begun to flood the market one after another.

Shao Danwei, president of Wanbang Golden Star Automobile Industry Group, is also one of the entrepreneurs in this wave of charging piles. At that time, the sales performance of Wanbang car industry was good, but Shao Danwei, who saw the wind outlet, decided to create Wanbang New Energy and started the "Star Charging" project based in Changzhou, Jiangsu.

According to data from Tianyan Check, Wanbang New Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd. was established on December 26, 2014, with a registered capital of 300 million. Shao Danwei is the chairman of the company and holds 50% of the shares. The other major shareholder is Ding Feng. It also holds 50% of the shares. In the business layout of Wanbang New Energy, the company has four businesses: charging equipment production-Wanbang Dehe; charging pile operation-Star Charging; new energy vehicle sales-Wanbang New Energy 4S store; user charging Pile supporting services-cloud installation, basically covers the entire chain of charging piles from production to installation, and then to operation.

Relying on strong capital reserves, Xingxing Charge has completed the initial expansion of the market. According to public reports, in only 3 months, Xingxing Charging has built 1,400 charging piles in Changzhou. Subsequently, Xingxing Charging expanded its territory in the first and second cities across the country. Through crowdfunding, the site was sold by partners who have parking spaces and surplus capacitors. Xingxing Charging is responsible for the construction, operation and maintenance of charging piles. The market share of charging began to grow rapidly.

In February 2016, Xingxing Charging stationed in Beijing, and more than 300 7kw AC charging piles were shipped from Jiangsu Wanbangdehe New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., all the way north, after more than 1,000 kilometers of long-distance transportation, they were densely installed in the city. To the parking lot on both sides of the 500-meter-long Xiedao Road and its east gate. In June 2016, Xingxing Charging announced that it had obtained the A round of financing from the China Development Fund.

Judging from the geographical environment around Xiedao, the airport expressway is close to the north, Wenyu River is to the east, and many museums and art parks are spread to the west and south. Therefore, the resident population of this place is far from concentrated. And because of the resort, most of the people who come to Crab Island are tour groups, and most of the transportation is by bus. People who drive electric cars to Crab Island are almost negligible.

"The charging piles on Xiedao are basically used by a small number of tourists, and nearby residents will not come here to charge." A shopkeeper who has opened a milk tea shop in Xiedao for 4 years told the editor that he lives in the community in the south of Xiedao. Outside the door, there are charging piles of the State Grid, and all electric vehicle owners in the community will choose to use the charging services of the State Grid.

According to the data of the star charging piles on the Baidu map, 149 of the 290 slow charging charging piles launched on Xiedao are idle, and 9 of the 33 fast charging charging piles are idle, and the cost is 0.57. Yuan/degree, and these data are also in a real-time changing state.

Through many days of field statistics, the editor found that among the more than 300 charging piles in Xiedao, all the charging piles in the parking lot near Dongmen are idle, and the remaining charging piles on Xiedao Road are only 3 to 4 during the day. Is being used. In the evening, the utilization rate of charging piles is even lower, basically only one or two are in normal operation. According to comprehensive statistics, Xiedao's charging pile utilization rate is less than 1%. Therefore, no matter from which dimension the data of Baidu Map is viewed, there is a big gap between the data obtained by the editor in actual statistics.

Later, the editor came to the charging pile of the State Grid near the south gate of Xiedao and found that there were 12 charging piles, 11 of which were being used, and there were still several cars queuing up at some piles. . Different from the 7kw AC slow charging pile in Xiedao, the State Grid charging pile is a 33kw DC charging pile, and the charging speed is about 4-5 times that of the star charging. In terms of price, the national grid is 1.5 yuan/kwh, while the star charging is 1.8 yuan/kwh.

"State Grid's pile is fast charging, and after 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., the price will be discounted. Charging here for a month can save a lot of money compared to other brands." A person is using State Grid. The Didi driver of the charging pile told the editor that the State Grid’s pile is not only faster, but also more affordable than the star charging and special calls.

"Except for Tesla owners, most consumers who buy electric vehicles are still sensitive to charging service fees, and there is so much difference between fast charging piles and slow charging piles, so most electric car owners will choose to rank in the national grid. An entrepreneur in the charging pile industry told the editor that it is difficult for private enterprises to compete with the State Grid in terms of electricity price competition.

Therefore, whether in power price competition or according to the industry standard that the utilization rate of charging piles must reach 30% or more in order to make a profit, Xiedao is not a place worthy of building a large number of charging piles. So why does Star Charging have to build so many charging piles intensively in the face of losses in Crab Island, where the charging demand is not strong?

“The reason why piles are built so intensively is to get better operating data and thus gain the favor of the capital side.” Zhang Xiang, an independent automotive consultant, told the editor that in the early days of the industry's outbreak, which one can take the lead If you place more parking spots, you will be able to restrain the development of your competitors to a large extent, and you will have more opportunities to get support from investment institutions. "As for how many charging piles are effectively used, most investment institutions don't care."

According to Zhang Xiang, the capital market actually knows that the consequences of blind expansion will cause a large amount of charging to be left unused. But in the window period of the market outbreak, scale is far more important than operational efficiency. Investors generally believe that the waste of resources is temporary, and it is only possible to consider specific operational efficiency and profit models after large-scale.

In fact, in order to increase the number of piles and make the operating data more beautiful, Xingxing Charging is also building charging piles in some inaccessible places except Crab Island.

According to the article "Star Charging Built Charging Pile in the Vegetable Field" by EV Century on August 11, 2016, the editor found that in addition to a large number of charging piles on Xiedao, the piles were also set up outside Beijing South Sixth Ring Road. In a vegetable plot in Daxing District, 10 kilometers away. There are a total of 20 AC piles and 2 DC piles in this pile group. The factory date is September 2015, which is earlier than the batch of piles on Xiedao.

It is thanks to the rough play that Star Charging has been able to advance all the way in the highly competitive charging pile market, and in just three years, it has been among the top three in the industry. According to the statistics of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of the end of 2017, the top four in the number of charging piles in the country were Telecom, State Grid, Star Charging, and Putian.

One year later, as of May 2018, there were 318 charging operators nationwide, of which the top ten companies had a market share of 96%. Among the ten companies, the construction and operation of charging piles are mainly concentrated in four: State Grid, Special Call, Xingxing Charging and Putian New Energy, which account for about 87% of the market.

Among them, the number of charging piles operated by Special Call has reached 112,000, ranking first, the number of operation of State Grid and Star Charging is 56.5 million and 44,000; the second echelon, China Putian and SAIC Anyue two The number of charging piles operated by this company exceeded 10,000, which were 144,000 and 12,600, respectively; while the scale of other operators such as Shenzhen Auto Grid, Tesla, and BYD was around several thousand.

One side is the rapid expansion of Xingxing Charge, and the other side is the bankruptcy and departure of other companies. This style of play is very similar to the sharing economy model. The winner takes all and the loser exits. It is simple and rude.

On July 31 this year, the charging pile company Shenzhen Rongyi Electric Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Rongyi Electric) issued a company dissolution announcement, owed more than 80 million accounts, and was blocked by the supplier. Not long before the bankruptcy of Rongyi, Beijing Fudian Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. announced its withdrawal from the NEEQ due to financing difficulties. Earlier earlier this year, it was reported that Shenzhen Charging Network Technology Co., Ltd. had ceased operations due to a broken capital chain. Shenzhen Wall Nuclear Materials Co., Ltd. received a 48.776% stake in Judian Networks for RMB 8 million. Become its largest shareholder.

On the one hand, it is bankruptcy and bankruptcy, on the other hand, it is the financing of new players entering the market. On July 11, 2017, Yikuaijiao, a shared charging pile project, announced that it had received 4 million angel round financing; on May 30, 2018, Aion Technology’s smart charging pile "Charge Plus" announced the completion of the top business investment angel round financing; 2018 On June 20, the electric-tail monkey charging pile completed 10 million yuan A round of financing...

In addition to the blessing of capital, the state's subsidy policy is also another major driver of the charging pile industry.

"Subsidies give us more energy to serve our customers and society, and remind us that charging piles must not be energized and put in the sun." Dong Xiaojing, general manager of Xingxing Charge, said in an interview with the media at the beginning of this year.

According to the "Guidelines for the Application of Subsidy Funds for the Construction of Internal Public Charging Facilities in Beijing Municipality in 2018" issued by Beijing, the subsidy standard for the construction of public charging piles is 400 yuan/KW for 7KW and below, and 500 yuan/KW for those above 7KW. Xingxing Charging installed a 7kw AC charging pile on Xiedao, which means that each charging pile construction can receive a government subsidy of 2,800 yuan.

"In addition, in accordance with the "Interim Regulations of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission on the Administration of Government Investment" (Jing Fa Gai [2004] No. 2423), investment and construction units may apply for municipal government fixed asset subsidies not higher than 30% of the total project investment Support. In order to get enough subsidies, most companies will manipulate financial data to increase construction costs." Zhang Xiang said.

Barbaric deployment, extensive operation, and insufficient demand, all kinds of stubborn illnesses in the actual operation of these charging piles have also caused the profitability of the entire industry to be difficult. Although the specific loss of Xingxing Charging is still unknown, the actual operation of the charging pile industry can be learned from the public operating data of Qingdao Terad Electric Co., Ltd., a listed company to which the industry ranks first.

According to publicly available financial data, as the first listed company to deploy the charging pile market, Terad said that in the three years since the establishment of Telecom, the loss in 2016 was 300 million yuan, and the loss in 2017 was 200 million yuan. The goal for 2018 is to The loss was reduced to around 100 million yuan.

"The main reason for the company's continuous operation of the company's losses for consecutive years is that the main reason for the company's continuous operation is that it is backed by the listed company, and the funding of the secondary market can make it profitable. However, this method is completely unsuitable for startups." The charging pile mentioned above. Industry entrepreneurs told Lieyun.com that behind the brutal expansion like Xingxing Charging, it is actually using income from other businesses, such as 4s store sales income, to support the losses caused by the charging pile business. "It is to dismantle the east wall to make up the west wall. ".

"After preemptively occupying the pile positions, even if the charging piles are broken or the utilization rate is not high, companies generally will not replace old piles with new piles. The first cost is too high, and the second company’s total pile positions The number will not change." Zhang Xiang said that this industry is currently in such a situation. Companies that occupy the stakes do not pay attention to operations, and companies that want refined operations have no way to obtain stakes, thus causing the unhealthy development of the entire industry. The cemetery also appeared.