With the re-increasing penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the global market, some regional markets are beginning to shift the driving force for industrial development from aggressive subsidy policies to charging infrastructure. Especially for the US and European markets, since the construction of charging piles in the region is much slower than the growth of electric vehicle sales, how to alleviate the constraints of insufficient supporting facilities on industrial development has become a difficulty that needs to be studied and resolved in their respective markets.
Huge difference in vehicle-to-pile ratio
As far as the development of the US electric vehicle market is concerned, the severely lagging charging infrastructure construction is becoming an important factor limiting the speed of this market. Data show that in 2022, although the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the US market will increase rapidly, reaching about 6%, the vehicle-to-pile ratio will increase sharply to 17:1.
Therefore, after focusing on the localized production of electric vehicles and battery components under the framework of the Deflation Act, the United States will turn its attention to the field of charging piles. On February 15th, the U.S. government officially issued new regulations on the electric vehicle charging facility network in the United States, requiring all charging piles that enjoy federal government funding to be built and assembled locally in the United States, with a view to building a network with a high local proportion by July 2024. 55% of the charging pile industry chain.
In the European electric vehicle market, the development trend of "disconnection" between vehicles and piles is also obvious. According to the tracking report of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) on the construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the region: between 2016 and 2022, the share of pure electric vehicles in the EU market will expand to 12.1%, although the number of public charging piles in the range will be achieved. 6-fold increase, but far behind the 18-fold increase in sales of pure electric vehicles.
The development of charging piles is extremely uneven
At present, according to the difference in charging capacity, charging piles in the US and European markets can be divided into two types: AC slow charging and DC fast charging. Among them, AC slow charging piles account for about 80% of the US market, and the development is extremely uneven. In terms of DC fast charging, Tesla occupies a dominant position in this segment. Its current 17,000 fast charging piles have a total market share of about 58%.
The balance of fast and slow charging piles in Europe is more extreme than that in the United States. Today, AC charging piles with a power level of 22kW and below account for about 88% of the market in this region, while the first and second-level ultra-fast DC charging piles with a power level higher than 150kW Charging piles accounted for only about 4.7%. However, charging pile manufacturers and operators such as ABB, Siemens, EVBox, and Allego that provide public services for this market are working to improve this extreme difference.
In Europe, the Netherlands has become the market with the most complete charging infrastructure in the EU with 112,000 charging piles, followed by Germany with 87,000. The above two countries have concentrated 42% of the charging pile facilities in the EU. Compared with the density of one charging pile per 1.5 kilometers of road in the Netherlands, countries such as Poland and Romania only have a distribution density of one charging pile per 150 kilometers of road. The European Electric Power Industry Union (Eurelectric) believes that the European region needs to update the charging facility construction plan in terms of policy, and the "fit for 55" environmental protection and emission reduction package that is being promoted in the region requires "each member state to ensure that the main roads every 60 In addition to the plan to build an electric vehicle charging facility within one kilometer, a new plan has been established to deal with the possible surge in the number of electric vehicles and the charging needs of consumers.
Exploring the paths of interconnection and interoperability
Although in their respective markets, there are still various problems in the development of the charging pile market in the United States and Europe. But fortunately, all parties are also focusing on exploring the interconnection trend of different charging pile systems.
The first is the interconnection of charging pile interfaces. Tesla has initiated an interface unification process led by enterprise operators in the US market. It is reported that Tesla expects to open all 3,500 super charging stations along highways and 4,000 low-speed charging stations in commercial scenarios in the North American market by the end of 2024 for use by other electric models. The person in charge of the company's energy department once stated that "opening up charging piles can increase the utilization rate of the charging network to save operating costs and make the charging network more profitable." However, due to the difference between the company's DC fast charging network and other charging networks in the United States There are obvious differences between them, and it has not yet matched the compatible charging system CSS under the federal standard system, and its planned goals are still uncertain.
On the other hand, China's charging pile industry chain, which is backed by the world's largest electric vehicle market, has shown a focus on exploring the coordinated development of charging facility service platforms and power grids in terms of interconnection. During the National Two Sessions in 2023, Shao Danwei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, founder of Xingxing Charging, and chairman of Wanbang Digital Energy, suggested: build a unified national charging monitoring platform, and integrate and access various charging facilities and new energy enterprise operation platform data, for The large-scale optimized allocation of charging resources provides support. At the same time, she also suggested using real-time price signals to guide new energy vehicles to participate in vehicle-network interaction, so as to improve the operation mechanism of the electricity market.