This year, China's charging pile export will maintain growth

Since this year, Chinese charging pile enterprises have accelerated the process of going to sea. At the present stage, how is China's charging pile enterprise going overseas? How will Chinese companies respond to the recent spate of new foreign regulations on electric vehicle infrastructure?

The overseas market has huge potential

Li Kang, director of the comprehensive Department of the China Charging Alliance, said: "With the increasingly fierce competition in the domestic charging equipment market, the profit margin of domestic charging equipment has been greatly reduced. Charging equipment manufacturers in order to find a new growth point, have sought export. At present, there are dozens of enterprises to start charging pile export business. In addition, since charging network construction is mainly invested by automobile enterprises in foreign countries, the industrial chain layout of charging equipment is relatively poor, and Chinese charging pile products have relatively advantages in both quality and price."

Zhang Xiang, president of New energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, also said: "At present, although the export volume of Chinese charging piles is relatively small compared with the number of domestic charging piles, with the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, the global demand for charging piles will grow significantly. To seize the global market at an early date is an excellent opportunity for domestic manufacturers who have accumulated more than ten years of technology in this field."

So, how is the global market developing? According to the general manager of Shenzhen Kehua Hengsheng Technology Co., LTD. Liang Yishu, at present, countries around the world are speeding up the pace of electric vehicle transformation. The European Union's new energy vehicle market is developing rapidly, and the United States, with the gradual introduction of the subsidy bill, will also quickly release the market potential. In order to keep up with the general trend of automobile electrification, Japan will also switch from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles research and development. "In Europe, for example, sales of electric cars in the EU have increased tenfold in the last five years, but the number of public charging points has only increased two-and-a-half times. At present, the domestic pile ratio is 6.8:1, while the European pile ratio is 15:1-20:1. The construction of charging infrastructure overseas is slower than the development rate of electric vehicles, and the future market potential is huge."

Seek new models of cooperation

Foreign market demand is large, domestic enterprises have to go to sea. Recently, the United States issued new regulations on the construction of electric vehicle charging facilities, requiring that all electric vehicle charging stations that receive subsidies from the U.S. Infrastructure Act must be built in the United States. From July 2024, components made in the United States will account for at least 55 percent of the cost of charging piles. How will these requirements affect domestic enterprises?

"Currently, most domestic charging piles are exported to Europe, such as Italy, the Netherlands and Germany," Li Kang said. The domestic charging pile mainly follows the export of our new energy vehicles to overseas. Tesla, a major U.S. NEV manufacturer, did not initially use domestic charging piles, so relatively few companies export charging equipment to the United States."

In fact, since the end of last year, domestic charging pile companies have started to move their headquarters to Europe and other places in order to expand the global charging pile market and cope with international trade barriers. For domestic companies that export to the United States, the new rules are far from devastating.

"Different from foreign charging pile enterprises, there are many, large investment, early start. But Chinese companies tend to be smaller and less international than some international companies. In response to the new U.S. regulations, domestic companies may choose to build factories in the United States." Zhang Xiang said.

Daotong Technology recently said on its investor interactive platform that the company's orders for charging piles in North America are mainly from local commercial customers, and government subsidies account for a relatively small proportion, so the impact is controllable. In the long term, the company plans to build a factory in the United States this year because of tighter restrictions, especially on American manufacturing.

Liang Stretch said that the company has adopted a flexible export mode, including parts supporting business and charging pile export business. "New US regulatory requirements mean that Chinese companies cannot export entire piles to the US, and domestic charging pile parts will not be preferred by US pile companies after July 2024. As for the US market, we will try to actively explore with local partners cooperation modes, such as technology export or joint ventures, in response to the requirements of the new US law during the buffer period when the new regulations are strictly implemented."

Continue to increase investment in research and development

Li Kang believes that in the future, domestic charging pile enterprises should have the ability to resist risks. "As a key supporting facility for new energy vehicles, the cost ratio of charging equipment will gradually increase with the continuous progress of charging technology. At the same time, the demand for charging devices will increase. Therefore, Oems in different countries are bound to be positioned in the charging equipment manufacturing side, and it is not clear how the global product competition will start."

He suggested: "Next, on the one hand, domestic charging pile enterprises should continue to strengthen their research and development capabilities according to the current cost and technological advantages, improve the update and iteration speed of the whole product, and maintain the leading edge in technology; On the other hand, we should also actively carry out cooperation with foreign enterprises to achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation. In addition, pay attention to the advance layout of raw materials such as charging connectors and charging modules."

It is worth noting that the export of domestic charging piles not only faces the problem of trade barriers, but also the research and development investment in the early stage of export is not a small challenge. According to Liang, there are three different sets of standards overseas, and domestic charging pile enterprises need to develop new technologies and products according to different regional standards abroad. Countries around the world also have different requirements for grid access, metrological certification, payment and settlement systems, and after-sales localization of charging piles.

"The technical difficulties faced by domestic enterprises in exporting charging pile products can be solved through technology accumulation and precipitation, but the investment and operation risks faced by enterprises not only need more reasonable management and careful layout of their own business, but also hope to get better supporting policies." Liang Stretch said.

For this year's overall market situation, Li Kang believes that the domestic charging pile export will not be much affected. "The development trend of the new energy vehicle industry is clear and it has huge potential. "Therefore, the demand for charging devices will surge in the next 2-3 years."

Liang also said that the company's main business covers Europe, Asia, North America, India, the Middle East and so on. The export growth rate is expected to exceed 100 percent in 2023.