China's Charging Pile Industry Needs to Step out of the Extensive Stage of Development
At the beginning of this year, charging piles were included in the new infrastructure category along with 5G and big data. In November, the General Office of the State Council pointed out that the sales volume of new-energy vehicles should account for about 20% of all new car sales by 2025. Policies have been issued in many places to give certain subsidies to enterprises that build charging and replacement facilities. Driven by the policies, a large number of enterprises rush into the charging pile industry to seize the market. Data from tianyancha.com shows that as of December 22, there were more than 100,000 enterprises related to "charging piles", among which 23,000 enterprises were established during the year, and more than 20,000 enterprises poured into the charging pile industry. However, data released by China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance shows that as of November 2020, through sampling of vehicle piles of about 1.20 million vehicles by vehicle enterprises within the alliance, 357,000 of them were not equipped with charging facilities, with an overall unequipped rate of 39.1%, which is still at a high level. Meanwhile, several media have reported the existence of "zombie piles" in Beijing, Shanghai and other areas, and some investors have stopped operating projects after receiving government subsidies. According to data released by China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Alliance, as of November 2020, there are 9 charging companies operating over 10000 charging piles across the country, of which including TELD Operation , Star Charge, the State Grid Operation occupy the top three. The nine charging companies accounted for 90.6% of total and the rest of charging companies accounted for only 9.4% of the total. The industry concentration is relatively high. In this case, China's charging pile industry needs to step out of the "extensive" stage of development. Capital and enterprises need to do sufficient research before entering the industry to avoid blind expansion driven by policies.