Recently, in the daily live broadcast with my colleagues, I have also constantly had audience friends consulting whether they can buy new energy models without personal charging piles. At that time, there were new energy car owners in the live broadcast room who said that they should not buy new energy vehicles without personal charging piles. So is it reliable to rely solely on public charging stations to replenish energy? No, we immediately conducted a survey of public charging resources in Chengdu.
1. Sales of new energy vehicles soared, charging facilities "can't keep up"
Recently, CCTV has continuously reported the problem of "difficult charging of new energy vehicles in winter". Especially in the winter in the northern region of China, the activity of the power battery declines under low temperature conditions, the discharge rate of the battery decreases, and the battery capacity is affected, so it needs to be charged more frequently.
There are also car owners who get up at 4 a.m. to grab charging piles, or are still looking for charging piles at 11 o'clock at night. For some operating vehicles that need 1-2 recharges per day, the long search and waiting also directly affects their income.
From the anxious faces of these car owners, it is difficult to see the happiness that overflows in the advertising films of major new energy models.
According to the statistics of relevant departments, the biggest problem facing the charging of new energy vehicles in China at present is the uneven distribution of public charging piles and the problem of insufficient utilization.
In order to investigate the current operation and utilization of public charging piles in Chengdu, we specially conducted a survey, and this time we visited three large shopping malls and five charging stations.
2. Shopping mall supporting uneven
According to the relevant departments in Chengdu, by October 2021, Chengdu has built more than 28,000 charging piles and 701 charging stations.
In order to verify the equipment in the charging station, we also borrowed a Baojun KiWi EV, but today our attention is not on this popular fashion item.
MixC
Our first stop is Chengdu MixC, which integrates high-end office buildings, department stores and supermarkets. Saic Motor Audi's store being renovated also declares the high-end positioning of the MixC, so how is its supporting in public charging piles?
We learned from the charging map query in the mobile phone navigation app that the MixC currently has four charging stations, two of which are dedicated charging stations for Tesla and Porsche, and one of the other two is a slow charging station.
When we drove down the basement, we found that there were no signs for charging stations at the entrance to the basement and elsewhere except for the signs for the Tesla supercharge station.
According to my experience of charging here, when I found the slow charging station, I found that the slow charging station had been demolished, leaving only the screw holes in the wall to indicate that it had existed.
The other charging stations are dedicated charging stations for the merchants stationed in the MixC. According to the parking lot staff, the MixC currently has no other public charging stations except for the dedicated charging stations of Tesla and Porsche.
Ito Yoyodo.Sogusu Store
The second stop we went to Shuangnan Ito-Yokado in the West Second Ring Road of Chengdu, according to the charging map query, it is learned that Ito-Yokado has a fast charging station, but there are only three charging piles, and there is still one left.
As the most beloved department store of chengdu, Ito-Yokado can be described as a representative of shuangnan store. However, this representative's attitude towards new energy is consistent with that of Japanese car brands - all of which are somewhat resistant.
When we came to the charging station, we found that in addition to a BYD and a Landu charging, there was also an Audi fuel vehicle that occupied the exclusive parking space that should belong to the charging of new energy vehicles. The eight words on the wall, "special parking space for charging cars", are extremely ironic.
Joy City
Next, we chose Joy City, which is a few kilometers away, as the same large commercial body as the MixC, Joy City is more close to the people, and from the charging map query, we know that it has a charging station with 20 charging piles.
As soon as we entered the basement, we saw signs that made the charging stations of new energy vehicles very clear.
The charging station has 10 fast charging and 10 slow charging piles, and a staff member nearby will keep an eye on it at any time to prevent fuel models from being parked here.
However, there are five fast charging piles for Feifan Car, with a ground lock, which should be reserved or operated through the car machine system or mobile phone special App. There are only 5 fast charging piles that are actually open to the public.
The slow charging pile uses the box charging pile in the picture, but perhaps because it is more troublesome to retract and place, so after the owner completes the charging, it is only placed nearby and not put back in place.
Although these three shopping malls do not represent all the shopping malls in Chengdu, they also reflect some problems, such as insufficient attention to the construction of charging stations, basically relying on brands or operators to build themselves, and lack of maintenance for equipment. One of the best is Joy City, with clear signs and a large number of signs, and there are special personnel to take care of parking spaces that are not parked by fuel vehicles.
3. Queuing at public charging stations is common
Charging station in public parking
Next, we went to the public charging station to check, the first to go to a charging station located outside the East Second Ring Road, according to the charging map shows that the parking lot has 60 charging piles. And according to the navigation, we and the signage, we successfully found the parking lot.
At this time, it is nearly 12 noon, almost all the charging piles in the charging station have vehicles charging, and vehicles have begun to queue up.
We talked to a newly arrived car owner and learned that he was an online ride-hailing driver, and the charging station was the "stronghold" of the nearby new energy online car-hailing and taxi, which was not the peak of charging, and often needed to queue for more than 2 hours after 11 p.m. to recharge.
Several online car and taxi masters next to them also said that they came early and charged at a high cost; they came late and had no place.
According to the scan code view, the current charging unit price is 1.28 yuan / kW.h, and the peak price of charging pollution after half an hour is 0.9 yuan / kW.h. After 11:00 p.m., the price will drop to 0.6 yuan /kW.h, which is more than 50% cheaper than the current price.
We also saw a BYDHan EV in a number of operating vehicles, and it was clear from the car seats in the car that it was a private car.
There are also meals and rest areas in the parking lot for drivers and masters who come here to recharge, but no one has been seen resting inside. Most drivers choose to be next to the car, although the winter in Chengdu is not as good as in the north, but the station will still feel uncomfortable after a long time.
Charging station of new energy vehicle parking lot
Next we went to another dedicated charging station, which is limited to green-plated vehicles and contains 10 fast-charging piles.
However, the two charging piles left in the field, one plug is damaged, and the other always shows that it cannot be charged after plugging in.
Underground parking charging station
Head to the next large car park, which offers a variety of services such as car repair, car wash, car rental, charging station, etc.
Following the loud noise, we came to the charging station and found that dozens of charging stations were already full of charging vehicles.
The new energy that is still waiting to be charged has joined the long queue, and our KiWi has just been filled in the morning, so it will not delay other drivers to charge.
Repair shop charging station
We navigated to the last charging station today, only to find that the charging station was located in an auto repair plant.
According to our chat with the garage staff, the charging station stopped operating a few months ago, and was only used inside the auto repair plant before, and was not open to the public.
According to the visits to a number of public charging stations, we found that most of the public charging stations are built in the operating parking lots, and the environment of these parking lots is not good, even if the charging operators build rain shelters and other settings, it is difficult to alleviate the cold when waiting in winter and the heat in summer. And the integrity of these charging station equipment is also worrying, and queuing is also very common.
4. How far is the vision of electrification?
During the visit throughout the day, we passed a Weilai replacement power station, and just when some car owners were changing electricity, we also took the time to go up and talk for a few words. The owner of the car said that he is not from Chengdu, this time he is coming to do things, he has been working in Guang'an City for a long time, there are not many local public charging stations, but there is basically no need to queue.
During the conversation, his ES8 had been replaced, and the whole process was only 5-6 minutes. Then we consulted the staff of the substation, and he said that because it is an App reservation, there is almost no need to queue up, but there have been cases where all the batteries of the charging station have been replaced.
On the last day of the New Year's Day holiday, WEILAI's 780th substation in China was launched, but compared with the number of new users added by WEILAI in 2021, its number is still small.
In the CCTV report, the Beijing public substation is a different scene, and the daily queue time is comparable to that of public charging stations.
In the roadside parking lot near the community where the author lives, the charging station occupied by an operator with 5 parking spaces has been more than half a year since the beginning of construction, and it has not yet been completed.
Although the government and manufacturers have been rapidly promoting charging facilities in recent years, the rapid rise in sales of new energy vehicles has made these efforts seem a bit of a drop in the bucket. Under the current situation that the bottleneck of battery technology cannot be broken through in the short term, the problem of charging and endurance anxiety has always existed, which has also hindered more oil truck users to change to tram users.
Editor's Comments:
Back to the beginning of the audience question: If there is no personal charging pile, then is it still recommended to buy a new energy model?
My opinion is that it is not recommended to buy new energy vehicles in cities with unlimited license plates for car purchases, because the construction speed of public charging stations in the short term is far from catching up with the growth rate of new energy vehicles, and do not expect that there will be Internet capital like the previous "money burning war" of online car-hailing. To solve the problem of public relations charging stations, only by the government and enterprises to work together, co-construction, sharing, and co-management can we truly solve this problem. And this process is destined to be long.
The product advantages of new energy vehicles are destined to attract more and more consumers, but their limitations are also doomed to become "electric daddies" in the case of imperfect energy conditions. Only when you have a personal charging pile and can replenish energy every day, the electric car can make you really use it smoothly.