Many places in the north are experiencing widespread snowfall! The "fig leaf" that prevents electric vehicles from losing power when encountering extreme cold has once again been unveiled. Compared with the cold winter, what do electric vehicle owners fear more? "Charging prices have increased! And they have increased quietly!" Many car owners have discovered that electricity charges at public charging piles in many places have begun to increase.
Some Tesla owners bluntly said that the electricity price of Tesla charging piles in some areas during the preferential charging period (21:00 to 9:00 the next day) has risen from the original 1.08 yuan/kWh to 1.29 yuan/kWh. “Originally, the power is attenuated in winter, and with the increase in charging fees, it is really a ‘dad’.”
Another online ride-hailing driver said that even if he budgets carefully to recharge electricity during the preferential period, he will still spend 400-500 yuan more than before every month.
Many car owners attribute the increase in costs to high service fees. Is this really the case?
Why are charging pile operators complaining?
According to media reports, in the past few months, the price of electricity at charging piles in many places, including Shanghai, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, and Qingdao, has increased significantly, ranging from a few cents to one yuan. The highest increase has almost doubled compared to before. "Recently, it is almost impossible to find public charging piles with less than RMB 1 per kilowatt-hour of electricity." Master Zhang, an online car-hailing driver, said that as the price of charging at public charging piles has increased, his car cost has increased a lot.
Taking urban Beijing as an example, Master Zhang said, "The electricity price during off-peak hours is now about 1.4 yuan per kilowatt hour, which is about 20 cents more expensive than before." In addition, the endurance of new energy vehicles decreases in winter, charging is more frequent, and some charging stations with lower prices are "overcrowded."
In order to save charging costs, many drivers look for cheap charging piles everywhere at night, fearing that they will not be able to get them.
"Save some money on gas, but you have to devote a lot of time and energy to paying attention and service. In the past, I never considered the cost when refueling. When I bought an electric car, I would go out to charge it at 11 o'clock in the evening just to save some money." A car owner said that originally the car was to serve people, but now the "electric dad" requires you to serve it.
Sina Technology can see from some charging apps that there are almost no charging piles in Beijing that charge less than 1 yuan per kilowatt hour during the day. During the peak electricity price period in the afternoon, the price of fast charging piles is generally around 1.4 yuan/kwh; during the evening peak hours, the price rises to more than 1.7 yuan/kwh; in addition, the price of some charging piles has exceeded 2 yuan/kwh.
Some car owners said that the charging price increased because of the high service fees. "The electricity fee is more than 6 cents per unit, and the service fee is more than 8 cents." In response to this statement, some charging pile operators said that it is really unfair.
A charging pile operating company in Beijing provided Sina Technology with three months of operational data of one of their sites.
The above-mentioned business people said that at least in Beijing, the service fees of most charging piles will not be higher than the electricity bill. In cities such as Shanghai, the service fees of some stations may be higher than the electricity bill.
"It's okay here in Beijing. Most of the service fees are lower than the electricity fee. Many stations in Shanghai charge 2.2-2.4 yuan for service and the electricity fee is more than 1 yuan." The person said that each operator sets its own charging service fee and they are all different, but it is common for the service fee to be higher than the electricity fee, which is normal.
This person said that the reason behind the rising charging service fees is that after removing various costs, most operators do not make any money at all. "Not losing money is considered a good achievement." Therefore, operators cannot bear it and have to increase prices.
The above-mentioned people believe that the situation of operators is a dilemma. "If it doesn't increase, it will be exhausted, and if it increases, it will be hanged."
Will recharging become more and more expensive in the future?
"Prices will rise sooner or later. The low prices will attract a large number of people to buy them first. After they buy, and there is a market, they will start to raise prices for various reasons." A car owner said.
"Personally, I believe that the increase in service fees is inevitable, otherwise the charging operation industry will gradually wither. However, the demand exists objectively, and the trend of vigorous development of electric vehicles is irreversible, so there must be a way to resolve this contradiction." A charging pile operator said.
As the market becomes fully competitive and the market scale expands, will operating costs be further reduced?
Industry insiders believe that increasing scale does not necessarily lead to cost reductions, because charging pile operating companies have different situations at each site, and the costs are also different, and they cannot be simply copied in batches.
"In fact, the costs of charging pile operating companies are basically similar, mainly including investment in hardware facilities, site purchase or leasing, and personnel." The above-mentioned person analyzed that among these three parts of costs, only the cost of hardware facilities may have greater room for decline in the future. However, because the current national standards are relatively old and need to be updated, the equipment that matches them will also be updated in the future. This update process is destined to prevent equipment prices from falling significantly in a short period of time.
This person believes that there is no possibility of seeing cabbage prices in the short term. "In fact, this industry has been around for some years, and the companies that have settled down are the companies that have survived after the battle. Everyone has gradually returned to reason and calm."
Some people have also begun to settle accounts. If this continues, will it still be worthwhile to buy new energy vehicles?
Some people think that it depends on your own travel situation, and you must use a fuel vehicle for long-distance travel. "Most people rarely travel far by car, or they only go out once a year at most. For trips of more than 500 kilometers, it is not clear how much better it is to drive a fuel car compared to an electric car."
Taxi driver Master Zhang did some calculations. He usually uses more than 40 kilowatt-hours of electricity every day and calls it a day. He can run about 400 kilometers in summer and 300 kilometers in winter. If the most extreme charging fee is 2 yuan per kilowatt-hour, even in winter, it only costs more than 80 yuan to fully charge. The electricity cost per 100 kilometers is about 25 yuan, which is still more than twice as low as the previous fuel vehicles. At present, the power consumption of most new energy vehicles on the market per 100 kilometers is around 15 degrees, which may rise slightly as the temperature drops. This means that only when the charging price at charging piles rises to 5 yuan/kWh, the cost of using electric vehicles will catch up with traditional fuel vehicles.
What if we look at the problem from a more comprehensive development perspective?
"The current vehicle cost of pure electric vehicles is only 5 to 10 times that of gasoline vehicles, which is unsustainable. According to reasonable healthy development and economic perspectives, excessive cheapness is not a good thing and will cause excessive consumption of resources. In reality, it is also unsustainable. As the penetration rate of electric vehicles becomes higher and higher, electricity replaces gasoline as the main energy consumption. The shortage of electricity will inevitably lead to an increase in electricity prices. This is an economic law." An analyst said.
The above-mentioned person believes that road maintenance fees should also be taken into consideration. "Road maintenance fees used to be added to the gas price. The more you drive, it is reasonable to pay more for road wear and tear. Sooner or later, this money will be added to the electricity price."
"The core advantages of electric trains over gasoline vehicles are that they are more powerful, environmentally friendly, more intelligent, more comfortable, and have basically zero maintenance costs. Charging at home is far more convenient than going to a gas station. It is not normal and not a good thing for the travel cost to be so much lower than that of gasoline vehicles. In the future, it should be almost half the cost of gasoline vehicles, which is a more reasonable range." This person believes that it is not surprising that the travel cost of electric vehicles will eventually be the same as that of gasoline vehicles. "Everyone should be mentally prepared."
Text | Sina Technology Liu Lili