The 'Difficult-to-Please' Electric Car

Written by Meng Huiyuan

Edited by Li Jinlin

Typeset by Annalee

During the recently concluded National Day holiday, 'range anxiety'—a problem that has grown alongside new energy vehicles—once again became a major focus of public attention.

The challenges of charging on the road led many electric car owners to lament that they had learned a lesson during the National Day holiday: orderly service areas saw people queuing up to charge, with the queue stretching from the end to the entrance; while in disorderly service areas, people scrambled to find available charging stations, with multiple people rushing to charge as soon as one charging station became available... In the face of heavy traffic and scarce charging stations, fast charging and battery swapping seemed insignificant.

Compared to concerns about issues like 'generally high electricity prices on highways' and 'expensive overtime fees at branded charging stations,' electric car owners are clearly more worried about being unable to charge due to overcrowding, ultimately leaving their 'difficult-to-please' electric cars stranded on the road.

How Difficult is the 'Difficult-to-Please' Electric Car?

'Heading north, the number of supercharging stations in service areas gradually decreased, and even regular charging stations became scarce. Charging was generally slow and required queuing, and there were even fewer options once we entered Liaoning Province. By the time we reached the service area in Fuxin, there were only two charging stations with four charging points, each with an average of four or five people waiting in line.'

'I have to complain that some highway service area charging stations are really slow, and there are a lot of cars waiting. Some hybrid vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles are also queuing up, making it embarrassing for us pure electric car owners.'

'This year, some service areas were really thoughtful, and they even set up dedicated staff to manage real-time scheduling. They also set a standard for car owners to only charge up to 95%, which effectively improved the utilization of charging stations.'

'If you plan your route well, you won't get stuck in traffic. I drove for more than ten hours one way, and was only stuck in traffic for about 20 minutes. I always chose to charge off the highway, and never had to queue up.'

'I was so unlucky. I didn't charge at a highway charging station on the way there, so I looked for a nearby charging station after getting off the highway. But it turned out to be incompatible. Other cars could charge, but not mine. In the end, I had to call for a tow truck, and we had to take a taxi to our destination.'

The Diverse Faces of Electric Car Travel During the National Day Holiday

On mainstream social platforms, feedback and discussions from electric car owners during the National Day holiday regarding charging issues have elevated the common refrains of 'charging an electric car requires at least N hours of queuing,' 'charging stations on highways are being fought over again,' and 'queues are forming at faulty charging stations' to a new level of relevance.

Behind these phenomena lies a set of data that vividly illustrates 'range anxiety'—according to statistical analysis by the National Energy Administration of 24,400 highway charging stations included in the national charging facility monitoring service platform, from 00:00 on October 1 to 24:00 on October 7, electric vehicles on highways were charged a total of 3.1 million times, consuming 72.1527 million kWh of electricity. The average daily charging volume was 10.3075 million kWh, 2.4 times that of an average day this year, 34% higher than the daily average during this year's May Day holiday, and 80% higher than last year's National Day holiday, setting a new record.

Correspondingly, as of the end of June this year, the total number of charging stations nationwide reached 10.244 million, an increase of 54% year-on-year. Among them, there were 3.122 million public charging stations and 7.122 million private charging stations. The rated total power of public charging stations exceeded 110 million kW, meeting the charging needs of 24 million new energy vehicles. A total of 27,200 charging stations have been built in highway service areas (including parking areas), basically covering all provinces in China.

However, it is clear that the scarcity of charging stations and frequent malfunctions in some areas, as well as long queues and inefficiency at service area charging stations, remain unavoidable issues for many electric car owners. This tug-of-war over travel freedom continues.

A More Systematic Solution is Needed

The intensification of charging difficulties during holidays can be attributed to three main factors: First, as the penetration rate of new energy vehicles continues to increase, the construction of charging stations has not kept pace, leading to an imbalance between supply and demand. Second, the distribution of charging facilities is uneven, mainly concentrated in urban core areas, failing to fully cover the diverse charging needs of car owners. Third, although charging technology has improved, fast charging still takes a relatively long time, exacerbating the likelihood of queuing.

In response to these issues, Wu Bing, Deputy Director of the Department of Electricity of the National Energy Administration, previously pointed out that 'China's overall charging infrastructure service capabilities basically meet the current charging needs of new energy vehicles, but there are still issues such as imperfect layout, unreasonable structure, unbalanced service, and irregular operation.' Specifically, during travel, especially on highways, charging demand surges during holidays, while utilization rates are low during normal times. This not only affects the investment enthusiasm of enterprises but also makes it difficult to fully meet the charging needs of car owners.

Based on methods shared by some electric car owners, in order to actively avoid potential charging queues on highways, they recommend planning electricity usage before departure. Currently, software services like Baidu Maps and Gaode Maps can provide searches for charging stations along the route to the destination and inquiries about related information. If a temporary queue or other unexpected situations arise while charging on the road, it is also recommended to use charging apps like Xiaopeng Charging, ZEEKR Energy, and Xiaoju Charging to find nearby charging stations for emergency use. This approach has even earned praise from a considerable number of car owners.

It can be seen that some regions have also taken measures to address the temporary electricity shortage by installing temporary charging stations on major tourist routes and transportation hubs, extending the service hours of existing charging stations, staffing for real-time scheduling, presetting charging limits for car owners, and providing mobile charging services.

In terms of charging services provided by enterprises, the focus is on improving charging efficiency. For example, TELD launched the 'Charging Safety and Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Solution Based on Large Models' and the 'New Liquid-Cooled Supercharging System Based on Group Management and Power Sharing' as early as July 20. These solutions mainly involve predicting charging times through big data analysis, reducing queuing times, and enhancing user experience. By strengthening the management of equipment resources occupied by non-charging vehicles and leveraging intelligent operation and maintenance models, the utilization rate of charging equipment can be improved. NIO's battery swapping model has demonstrated its efficiency in meeting centralized travel demands. Relevant data shows that during the National Day holiday, NIO's 2,560 battery swap stations nationwide provided a total of 797,120 battery swap services to users, including 237,591 services at 860 highway swap stations. Each battery swap took only 3 minutes, saving users a total of 225,711 hours of charging time during long-distance highway travel.

While the above measures can alleviate immediate concerns, a more systematic solution is undoubtedly needed in the long run.

The Bonus of Charging Stations Sparks Competition

In fact, the difficulty of charging on highways reveals the current systemic imbalance in the new energy vehicle industry, particularly the growing contradiction between supply and demand for charging facilities.

Amidst strong demand lies a large market that is being fiercely contested. According to data from the China Chamber of Commerce Industry Research Institute, China's charging station market was valued at 37.2 billion yuan in 2022 and is projected to reach 67.7 billion yuan in 2023, with an expected value of 108.4 billion yuan by 2024.

An analysis report from the China Industry Research Institute points out that there are currently three mainstream international operating models for charging stations: government-led, grid enterprise-led, and automaker-led. In China's charging infrastructure sector, some enterprises have achieved remarkable results. For example, TELD, Xingxing Charging, and Yuncharging operate a large number of charging stations nationwide, occupying a leading position in the market.

Source: Asset Information Network, Qianji Investment Bank, China EV Charging Alliance

While the industry competition landscape is highly concentrated, with traditional energy companies like State Grid and China Southern Power Grid actively deploying charging infrastructure, major new energy vehicle enterprises are also stepping up their efforts to deploy their own branded charging stations, further intensifying market competition.

Specifically, Tesla, which was one of the earliest to embark on supercharging, had deployed over 1,900 supercharging stations and over 700 destination charging stations in mainland China as of March 2024, covering 100% of all provincial capitals and municipalities directly under the central government. NIO, as the world's largest operator of smart electric vehicle battery swapping networks, had built 2,529 battery swapping stations, 23,440 charging piles, and connected to over 1,085,000 third-party charging piles nationwide as of September 25. Xiaopeng, with over 1,000 self-operated charging stations, plans to deploy 10,000 self-operated charging stations and 4,500 S4 liquid-cooled supercharging stations by 2026. LIXIANG AUTO aims to build over 2,000 highway and urban supercharging stations this year and plans to invest 6 billion yuan in the coming years to establish 5,000 self-operated 5C supercharging stations, enabling its 5C supercharging stations to cover 95% of highways and major national roads in China. ZEEKR is accelerating its 'Thousand Stations, Ten Thousand Piles' plan, expecting to reach 1,000 ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2024 and 10,000 ultra-fast charging piles by 2026...

In this regard, Qianji Investment Bank believes that the competitive landscape of China's charging station industry demonstrates that leading enterprises have strengthened their dominant market position. While the entry of new market participants has brought some competitive pressure, due to the highly concentrated market and the strong competitiveness of leading enterprises, it is challenging for new entrants to gain significant market share. In the future, with technological advancements, policy support, and growing market demand, the competitive landscape of the charging station industry may undergo new changes, but the market leadership of leading enterprises will remain difficult to shake in the short term.

However, it is precisely because of the competition among these social capital and branded enterprises that market forces are driving solutions to the 'alignment' issue in energy replenishment. This is not only an effective means of alleviating range anxiety but also a key factor in leading the simultaneous improvement of upstream, midstream, and downstream industries such as charging stations, charging guns, and the operation and management of supercharging stations.

Of course, for users to see a substantive change in the situation of 'hard to find a charging station' during holiday travel, they will inevitably need to wait patiently for a considerable period of time.