Whose fault is it that there are far more charging posts than petrol stations and still not enough?

However, the charging of new energy vehicles has always been a problem, even though the number of charging posts is now far greater than that of petrol stations. So, why has the charging problem persisted? If you must buy a new energy vehicle, how can consumers solve this problem?

The ratio of piles to cars reflects the convenience of charging

Data released by the China Electric Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance shows that by the end of December 2020, there were a total of 1,681,000 charging piles nationwide, an increase of 37.9% compared to 2019. Bearing in mind that the total number of petrol stations in the country is also around 120,000 at present, the number of charging piles in China has far exceeded that of petrol stations simply from the figures.

In fact, it can be deduced from the data that the number of charging piles in China has long been more than that of petrol stations, but new energy vehicle owners have always had charging anxiety because the value of the car-pile ratio is too large. 2020 China's car-pile ratio is about 3:1, which means that 3 electric vehicles use 1 charging pile, which also leads to an oversupply of charging piles.

3:1 is the figure for all charging piles, including public, private and dedicated charging piles. If only public charging piles are counted, then the value of the vehicle-pile ratio is even less satisfactory. As of December 2020, the public category of charging piles in China is 807,000 units. However, the utilisation rate of 807,000 charging piles is not yet 100%.

I believe most new energy vehicle owners have had the experience of going through a lot of trouble to find a charging pile, only to find that there are fuel cars hogging the charging spaces, a situation for which there are no specific statistics in 2020, but in 2019, the CCA released data showing that 35.94% of public charging pile parking spaces are occupied by fuel cars. In addition, there are also some cities where public charging piles are not open to the public, with 5.82% of such piles in 2019.

Not only that, many public charging piles also suffer from malfunctioning problems, again according to the CCA in 2019, with 20.65% of public charging piles in ten popular cities such as North, Shanghai and Shenzhen malfunctioning. Obviously, with the number of charging piles failing to meet market demand and the number of public charging piles that can be used being extremely small, then the problem of charging for car owners cannot be effectively solved.

You may think that if public charging piles are not feasible, then the charging problem can be solved by installing private charging piles. But be clear, new energy vehicles are mainly concentrated in China's first and second-tier cities, parking spaces are expensive and properties do not necessarily allow installation, after all, charging piles involve the laying of electrical circuits, some of the old neighborhoods are close to full power grid, the number of charging piles will be larger than the impact on the grid capacity, bringing safety risks. In other words, both public and private charging piles are unable to meet the charging needs of new energy vehicles.

Long charging times are also a problem

In fact, after solving the problem of the number of charging piles, the use of new energy vehicles is still inconvenient, not only because of the short range, but also because of the long charging time. In this regard, to be honest, Buyer has not had much experience, and has only experienced charging a new energy vehicle once so far, however, it was this time that Buyer already did not want to have a second time, because he was used to the quickness of refuelling and could not accept the long waiting time for charging.

It took nearly half an hour to charge a joint-venture brand pure electric car in fast charging mode, which is very inefficient. If it was a fuel car, it would only take a few minutes to fill up.

In fact, the slow charging of pure electric cars is not entirely the fault of the charging pile, because the pile can shorten the charging time by increasing the charging power. There are AC, DC and integrated AC/DC charging piles, of which DC is the fastest and is often used for public charging piles. DC is the fastest and is often used in public charging posts, while AC is the slowest and is often used in private charging posts.

It is reported that a DC charging post with a power of 480kW will be able to complete 80% of the charging volume in 5 minutes. Currently, some charging post companies and car companies have also launched charging posts with a charging power of 350kW. The reason is that the battery packs of new energy vehicles do not support high power charging, otherwise problems such as bulging and deformation will easily occur, shortening the life of the battery pack, while safety is also significantly reduced.

According to the car buyer, most of the DC charging piles on the market today only have a power of 60kW, and even the new fast charging DC piles in 2020 will only have an average power of 120kW, but these are only theoretical values, and the actual charging power will be even lower, so it will take a lot of time to charge a new energy vehicle.

Car selection can be changed

When external conditions are beyond our control, we can only change ourselves. Choosing a suitable new energy vehicle can solve the problems of licensing and traffic restrictions, while avoiding the anxiety of charging.

There are more types of new energy vehicles, the main common ones are pure electric vehicles BEVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles PHEVs and extended program electric vehicles EREVs.

If your charging conditions are ideal and you have a vehicle at home that can be refuelled for long-distance runs, you should of course choose a pure EV, as pure EVs have a great advantage over other models in terms of driving quality, maintenance costs and comfort, etc. If you choose a pure EV from a new powerhouse such as the Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P7 or Weilai EC6, you can also enjoy a very rich smart Technology.

If a new energy vehicle is your family's only vehicle, you should consider a plug-in hybrid PHEV or an extended program electric vehicle EREV, which can be used as a pure electric vehicle when fully charged and can use fuel when the power runs out. However, it needs to be said that these models will have higher fuel consumption than the same model of fuel car when they are losing power - after all, it has an extra motor system.

The EREV, on the other hand, does not have many models to choose from, mainly the ideal ONE. this type of vehicle does require refuelling, but the petrol added only charges the battery, which is the driving source of the vehicle.

However, it is important to note that the market retention rate for new energy vehicles, regardless of brand, is not ideal and is far lower than that of fuel efficient vehicles in the same class.

If you want a 'new energy vehicle' with a high retention rate, consider a hybrid HEV, which is not considered a new energy vehicle by national policy, but is easier to get a licence for in some cities, such as Guangzhou, and is even supported by subsidies from some car companies, and has a high retention rate, especially for It also has a higher retention rate, especially for the two Tian models.

The development of new energy vehicles is already an unstoppable trend, and more and more consumers will be forced to choose new energy vehicles in the future, but judging from the development trend of charging piles, it is estimated that there will be a long time in the future before the problem of charging new energy vehicles is adequately solved, or at least it will be difficult to achieve the same convenience as refuelling fuel cars. In this case, we can choose a new energy vehicle that suits our own car scenario. In fact, in terms of product quality, new energy cars are better than fuel cars.

60KW CCS CHADEMO DC Fast Charging stations by Grasen is professional manufacturer of CCS CHADEMO dc fast charger in China and has specilized in the field for over 11 years. It has major customers, including Yutong, CATL, State Grid, BYD and so on.

Always seek for mutual development, Grasen pay high attention to research and development to meet market changes and requirements. 

Grasen has exported her chargers over 20 countries and receive more and more attention from customers in the wordwide.

If you want to cooperate with us, welcome to contact us freely.

If you are interested in our product, please contact us sales@grasen.com for more details.