Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Recently, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Musk announced that 7500 Tesla charging stations in the North American market are expected to be open to the public by the end of next year for use by other brands in the market, namely, supercharging stations along 3500 highways and 4000 slower "destination" charging stations in hotels, restaurants and other public places.

As we all know, Tesla's Super charging (Supercharge) network is recognized as the best DC fast charging network, especially in the United States and other charging networks are very different, and Tesla has the exclusive right to use the largest high-speed charging network in the United States, which are Tesla's unique core advantages. Previously, Tesla's charging stations in the United States could only be used by Tesla electric cars.

Why should Tesla open up the overcharging network instead of firmly protecting this solid "moat"? What is the business logic? Is it possible to unify the charging standard? What is the impact of open charging network on the industry?

In order to explore the answers to the above questions, Che Bai think Tank conducted an online interview with several senior people in the industry.

1. An open struggle for subsidies, implying that the energy storage electric vehicle charging network is a core part of Biden's plan to combat climate change by making electric vehicle sales account for 50% of all new car sales in the United States by 2030 (there were 100000 charging piles in 2021). Advocates say the lack of charging piles on American roads has slowed the growth of electric car sales and weakened the positive environmental impact of electric vehicles.

Although Musk has previously condemned the US government's intervention, Xiao Jianguo, deputy general manager of Beijing Tianlongxing New Energy Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the think tank that as the US government exerts more and more pressure, Tesla has also had to accelerate the opening of its supercharging network to other brands of electric vehicles.

Photo source: Tesla, Xiong Ying, deputy research director of China Electric vehicle Association, analyzed that Tesla agreed to open up the charging network of his own brand, mainly because he could obtain a subsidy of 7.5 billion US dollars from the US government.

Reuters quoted industry analysts as saying that according to the "National Electric vehicle Infrastructure Program Project" launched in 2021, the US federal government provided 7.5 billion US dollars in special subsidies in the field of charging network expansion and standardization transformation. If Tesla does not use this to adjust his strategy to make his charging network compatible with all types of electric vehicles, he will have to see other charging companies seize the market with the help of the government. For example, EVgo Inc and ChargePoint Holdings Inc are eyeing it covetously.

"Tesla's move is not surprising," said Geng Huili, a consultant to the China Electric vehicle Association. Tesla has always advocated 'openness', such as Musk's announcement of the opening of all patented technologies a few years ago. this opening of the charging network may be related to Tesla's energy storage business. "

Musk acquired SolarCity in 2016 and officially entered the renewable energy power generation industry. Large-scale energy storage system Megapack layout was launched in 2019, the global public utility energy storage industry, a number of super-large projects to promote the rapid development of energy storage. This means that Tesla is no longer an automobile manufacturing enterprise in the traditional sense, but an enterprise with the mission of "photovoltaic-energy storage-new energy vehicle" industry chain.

In Tesla's charging network, charging stations are often equipped with large energy storage systems. These energy storage systems can store energy during peak load periods and provide charging services to electric vehicle users during low load periods. This can not only balance the load of the power grid, but also improve the efficiency and stability of the charging station, so as to provide users with faster and more reliable charging services. Electric vehicle happens to be a good energy storage tool, if connected to the power grid, it can complete the energy storage function with the development of renewable energy.

Once the opening up is completed, Tesla will be able to promote the construction of the overcharging network at a faster speed and really turn himself into a third-party service provider in the industry. "this will help Musk realize his corporate vision-Tesla is an energy company." That's what Geng Huili said.

By opening up the charging network, Tesla can also expand financing channels and increase income, which will promote the commercial landing of his energy business, like Tesla Energy (Tesla Energy) or Tesla Electric Power (Tesla Electric), which technically sells electricity as a commodity.

"improving the utilization of the charging network actually reduces our costs, enabling us to lower charging prices for all our customers, thus making the network more profitable and enabling us to develop it faster," said Drew Baglino, head of Tesla energy. "that's a good thing."

Geng Huili also said: "Tesla will not do business at a loss, and the opening of charging piles should bring real money and money."

Tesla's stake can only be settled on Tesla App, and it is the way of deposit amount. Opening up and overcharging, Tesla immediately received a large deposit fee as cash flow. According to Goldman Sachs, a well-known US investment bank, Tesla's current charging network will generate more than $25 billion (171.5 billion yuan) in annual revenue for Tesla if it opens up its overcharging network to a third-party EV brand.

2. Uniform standard or caters to the standard? At present, Tesla has 17711 supercharging stations, accounting for about 60 percent of the total number of fast charging stations in the United States, which can add hundreds of miles of mileage in an hour or less. There are also 10, 000 "destination" chargers with Tesla plugs that can charge vehicles overnight. Therefore, some people in the industry boldly speculate: Tesla has the largest sales volume, and this is to rely on his own strength to unify the charging interface.

Xiong Ying opposes this view: "this is unlikely. There are international fast charging standards for cars, such as China's GB / T (national standard), Europe's use of CSS (European standard), American Combo, and Japanese CHAdeMO, which represent industry standards. They will certainly stick to it and will not be easily replaced by an enterprise standard."

Xiao Jianguo holds the same attitude: "as early as 2015, the Chinese government was promoting the interconnection of charging piles, and the new GB standard came into being. since then, great efforts have been made to transform the charging piles, which will not be changed because of Tesla. I think Tesla will only bow his head in the end."

And a White House official also made it clear at the briefing that Tesla's charging posts must be used by other trams using a federally approved "compatible charging system" (CCS) to be eligible for special subsidies, although Tesla has not yet promised to adopt the standardized system.

Therefore, opening the charging station is not only an opportunity but also a challenge for Tesla. Tesla must think about how to solve the problem of charging standards. " Tesla already has a set of standards with higher performance but is not internationally recognized. When it is connected to the public charging network in the United States and other countries, it needs to sacrifice its own performance to meet the standards of different countries. Thereby reducing the charging reliability of its charging facilities. " Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Automobile Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Science and Technology Vocational College, thinks so.

3. The general trend in fact, Tesla is not a forerunner in the decision to open up the self-charging network. Weilai began its layout as early as 2018. After years of development, many non-Weilai brand owners have used the charging network of Weilai. At the Lunar New year media conference in early February, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president, said that during the Spring Festival this year (January 13-February 5), there were more than 900,000 orders for charging piles. 76% of the electricity mainly serves third-party car brands. Driven by Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile, Polar Krypton and GAC Ean have all followed, landing the corresponding business or launching some activities to achieve the sharing of their respective charging networks. For example, in 2019, Xiaopeng reached a strategic cooperation with Weilai-- a shared charging network. Not only that, the two sides also carried out an active handshake at the software level: Xiaopeng App can directly query the NIO Power overcharge pile, and NIO Power's power-up App is also connected to the Xiaopeng overcharge station.

In early August last year, Polar Krypton Energy ZEEKR Power announced that in addition to the layout of charging networks such as overcharging stations, light charging stations and polar charging, it also launched polar charging services for non-polar krypton users, while GAC EA just launched a "hundred cities free charging" charging activity for non-brand users at the end of February.

"even if Tesla opens up the charging network in the future, it will have little impact on other domestic car companies," said Xiong Ying. " For these car companies, the biggest challenge is not Tesla, but how to solve many problems such as the difficulty of making profits and the reduced recognition of users of the original brand after running through the open charging business.

However, the interconnection of charging piles is the trend of the times. With the opening of charging networks such as Tesla and Weilai, it will certainly inject new vitality into the electric vehicle industry. Xiao Jianguo said that if the charging network ushered in a wide opening in the future, it will greatly promote the development of the electric vehicle market.

At present, China has also deployed national forces to actively promote the opening and construction of the charging network, not only the "New Energy vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" issued by the State Council, which proposes to give financial support to the construction of charging piles as public facilities. In addition, China is strengthening cooperation with other countries and regions to establish a more open and interconnected charging network, provide more convenient and reliable charging facilities for the development of the electric vehicle market, and promote the development and popularization of new energy vehicles.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: che Bai think Tank (ID:EV100_Plus). Author: Zhou Shuangjiang.

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