Electric vehicles are now very popular in major cities. The charging environment in major cities is getting better and better, and the lower cost of driving has also made more people willing to choose electric vehicles for travel.
However, for many electric vehicle users, their experience has not been greatly improved. Especially for those electric vehicle owners who do not have fixed parking spaces and charging piles, charging is a torturous thing. So the biggest question now is, why is the charging environment for electric vehicles still not so good when there are charging piles everywhere in big cities?
For electric vehicle owners, having a fixed parking space is the best way to use electric vehicles. Now, if you want to install a charging pile in a fixed parking space, you need to go through the cooperation of the power supply bureau, the property management company, and the installation company to complete the installation. Now the Power Supply Bureau has opened a special green channel for the installation of private charging piles. You only need to apply on your mobile phone, and the approval rate is still very high.
But many times, the installation of charging devices will cause problems in the property management link.
As the supervisor of a community, the property management company is responsible for the safety of the owners and residents in the community. As high-power electrical appliances, charging piles will definitely have a greater load impact on the community power grid. Therefore, some properties will refuse or make things difficult for the installation of charging piles for various reasons.
For example, in the following case, the property management company stated that the installation of charging piles is a change to the building and its ancillary facilities. The owners committee meeting decided not to allow the installation of charging piles. The installation of charging piles poses fire hazards and refused for three reasons. The result still has to be litigated in court. Charging pile installed successfully.
However, not every electric car owner has the time and energy to go to court with the property company, so there are still many car owners with fixed parking spaces who cannot successfully install charging piles.
In response to this phenomenon, in fact, many places have issued relevant regulations and guidance, requiring property owners to provide support and guidance when owners install charging piles. They cannot unreasonably prevent owners from installing charging piles in private parking spaces. The installation of charging piles in some communities Difficult problems can be solved.
However, there are actually some old residential areas where the installation of charging piles is limited by the old charging infrastructure. At this time, the property management and power supply companies need to work together to transform the residential power grid. But at this time, there is a high probability that the property management company will still create difficulties in every possible way. Therefore, whether it is an individual car owner installing charging piles or the power supply bureau transforming a community power grid, property management is a difficult hurdle.
If a charging pile cannot be installed in a fixed parking space in the community, or there is simply no fixed parking space, charging will need to go to a public charging pile outside. But public charging piles are a different story.
In order to maximize benefits, public charging piles are generally set up in areas with a large turnover of parking spaces such as shopping malls, and most of them are fast charging piles. There are actually not many fast charging piles set up near residential areas. This leads to the usual usage pattern of fast charging piles, which is contrary to the car usage habits of most private electric car owners.
Specifically, car owners usually drive their electric cars home and plug in the slow charger for one night to restore the electric car to a fully charged state. The car can be fully charged again the next morning. Generally, there is no need to worry about the electric car running out of power. However, if you need to charge at a fast charging station outside the community, car owners generally cannot charge every night. They can only drive to the charging station to charge when the battery is almost empty, and then drive the car back after charging. The user experience is quite bad. .
Moreover, the charging time and charging mode of fast charging stations are not suitable for the "leave out early and come back late" car use mode. Generally, slow charging piles can fully charge an electric vehicle with a constant power of 6-7 kilowatts. Even if the battery is empty and charging begins, a battery of about 70kWh can be fully charged in about 10 hours, which is very suitable for the "leave out early and return home late" driving mode.
If charging at a fast charging station, the charging power ranges from 30-100kW, and it usually takes 1-2 hours to fully charge the battery.This means that after 1-2 hours of charging, the car owner needs to walk to the charging station to drive the car away, which is quite troublesome.
Not to mention that in order to ensure profitability of fast charging charging stations, charging piles need to have a high turnover rate. Therefore, many fast charging stations will charge high occupancy fees for vehicles that have completed charging but occupy charging parking spaces, which is also not suitable for the "leave early and return late" car usage pattern.
So which kind of electric vehicle is the most suitable for a fast charging station? Electric vehicles such as taxis, online ride-hailing, and Lalamove need to be driven all day long. These vehicles cannot make money when they stop, so they need to be charged for as short a time as possible. It is best to solve the charging problem with just one lunch. .
Now fast charging can be really fast. It can charge 200km of battery life in 5 minutes at the fastest. You can say goodbye to battery life anxiety. But for most car owners who use fast charging stations, is this really the reality?
Based on my previous experience of using fast charging piles from many places and brands, the quality of fast charging services varies greatly, which largely depends on the charging service provider and the compatibility between the charging model and the charging pile.
is a big brand and a charging service provider that cooperates with car companies. The quality of charging services is still very good. For example, I drove an ID.6 to the Cammax charging station that cooperates with Volkswagen. The fast charging power can reach 100kW, and it can be charged to 80% in less than half an hour. The Kaimax charging station also has electronic ground locks to restrict the entry of non-charging vehicles, which is very convenient.
But when it comes to some unknown brand charging piles, the charging speed of some models can only reach about 35kW. And because charging prices are cheap, many online ride-hailing and huolala electric vehicles come to these small charging stations for charging. This results in the high frequency of use and imperfect maintenance of these charging piles. Frequently, the charging gun malfunctions and cannot be charged. When the maintenance staff came to the scene for maintenance, I plugged in the gun and found out that the charging gun was broken. I had to move to another charging gun to charge. The charging experience was very poor.
Of course, the quality of fast charging services is reflected in the charging price to a certain extent. Like the Camis I just mentioned, the electricity price plus service fee is about 1.5 yuan per kilowatt hour, not to mention Tesla Super The electricity price for fast charging is 1.8 yuan per kilowatt hour, while the unknown charging pile mentioned above is around 1 yuan. But for me, fast charging is definitely the faster the better. Otherwise, why not use the same user experience, lower electricity prices, and slow charging that does less damage to the battery?
The 2022 "Charging Infrastructure Monitoring Report in Major Cities in China" was released. The average density of utility piles in 32 cities exceeds 21 units/km², among which the density of utility piles in cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, Nanjing and Haikou exceeds 30 units/km². So charging facilities are now very complete in many big cities.
But at the same time, megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are at the lower end of the rankings in terms of charging pile utilization rate and turnover rate . This proves that the poor charging experience in large cities is not a problem of insufficient charging facilities, but a problem of charging. Poor service quality leads to low charging efficiency, which in turn leads to the problem of insufficient utilization of charging facilities.
This requires the charging service industry to improve service quality so that more charging service resources can better serve electric vehicle owners. Naturally, more people will buy pure electric vehicles.
