Never build charging stations in the same way as gas stations

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In the development of new energy vehicles, **significant investment is made in building charging infrastructure, which is mostly referred to as charging stations, battery swap stations, or simply charging hubs. For those who have no experience in this industry, their first thought is likely of the gas stations run by CNPC and Sinopec. In fact, that is indeed the case; whether they are charging stations operated by State Grid or Putian, they resemble gas stations very much, with similar canopies, vestibule columns, safety rooms, etc. The construction of these charging stations follows exactly the same model as that used for building gas stations. In the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing, we strive to find differences from traditional gasoline vehicles in order to achieve breakthroughs, yet in terms of charging infrastructure, we move in the direction of traditional gas stations. This reveals a lagging mindset in the development of charging infrastructure; we continue to use outdated methods to deal with technologies that have the potential to bring about major changes in the future. I. Reasons for building traditional gas stations: For gas stations, fuel is a **chemical**, and strict controls and regulations are applied at every stage, from storage to sales and transportation. At the level of gas stations, building them facilitates safety management and reduces the safety risks associated with the instability of these chemicals. Therefore, the construction of traditional gas stations is primarily driven by safety considerations, with the convenience of such stations being given secondary importance. This problem does not exist in charging infrastructure; electricity is an essential part of our lives. Although it poses certain risks, those risks can be controlled, and in the event of an accident, its impact will not be widespread. It is clear that the approach taken to building gas stations and charging stations is different. If charging infrastructure is built following the model of gas stations, it is nothing more than copying that model without taking into account the characteristics of the new energy vehicle industry. The construction of charging infrastructure should focus more on the convenience for users. Of course, it is impossible to build such infrastructure using traditional thinking. II. Problems existing in the current construction of charging stations 1. Land: It is well known that urban land supply is tight at present. The large-scale construction of charging stations consumes valuable land resources, and many cities no longer have large areas of land available for such projects. Considering the use of urban green spaces for this purpose goes against the original intent behind developing new energy vehicles. Moreover, the construction of charging stations requires meeting the conditions of “three accessibilities and one levelness” (access to water, electricity, and roads, as well as a leveled site), which makes site selection extremely difficult. Therefore, the issue of land is a major obstacle to building charging stations, and large-scale centralized construction of such facilities is not feasible. 2. Costs: Firstly, investing in the construction of charging stations requires a large amount of capital; for example, building a charging station operated by the State Grid involves investments in the hundreds of millions of yuan. Moreover, the construction process is time-consuming, and after investment is made, significant losses occur in the initial stages. According to **insiders within the power grid industry, none of the more than 400 charging stations that have been built are profitable, with all of them operating at a loss ； According to the Southern Power Grid subsidiary, its 7 charging stations in Shenzhen incur a loss of 13 million yuan per year. Secondly, charging stations require a large number of staff to monitor the charging process, which leads to high operating costs; moreover, high labor costs result in low efficiency. 3. Service capacity: At present, due to the limitations of battery performance, it still takes 2–3 hours to fully charge a vehicle using fast charging. As a result, the ratio of chargers to vehicles at most charging stations is set at 1:3 or 1:4. Even if a charging station is equipped with 30 chargers, it can serve less than 100 vehicles; moreover, since most charging stations have only around 10 chargers, the number of vehicles they can serve is even smaller. In contrast, a gas station of similar size can serve thousands of vehicles per day. Building a charging station just to serve less than 100 vehicles results in an extremely low level of utilization efficiency. 4. Convenience: In some areas where public buses are used, the vehicles need to go to charging stations to recharge after they have finished operating. This adds complexity to the charging process, and it’s easy for the vehicles to collide with the buildings or equipment at the charging stations while being moved there, making the entire charging process quite inconvenient. III. The development of distributed charging station networks is a trend. Given the numerous issues associated with building traditional charging stations, we need to think in a different way. Among the components of charging infrastructure, charging stations themselves are the most important devices. We can transform a single charging station into several individual charging stations arranged in a distributed manner. This approach allows for the full exploitation of the advantages of distributed charging stations, such as reduced land use, lower costs, and shorter construction times, thereby avoiding the various shortcomings of traditional charging station construction. At the current stage, as new energy vehicles are being promoted, the target customer base is relatively fixed, mainly consisting of entities in the public transportation sector, certain industries, and some private car owners. The operating patterns, usage habits, parking locations, and times of these vehicles all follow certain regularities. Therefore, the construction of charging infrastructure needs to be carried out in a way that is closer to the users’ needs, so as to meet those needs to the greatest extent possible; charging stations should be installed accordingly based on the specific usage patterns of the users. For example, Tesla adopted a destination charging approach in the development of its charging infrastructure, which brought such facilities closer to users and yielded excellent results. Due to the minimal impact of land factors, the construction model of distributed charging stations offers great flexibility in the planning of urban charging infrastructure. The layout of these charging stations can be adjusted according to changes in user demands. Even if it is necessary to relocate the charging stations, it is much easier than moving entire charging stations; moreover, the reusability of the equipment is high. This also reflects, to some extent, the requirement outlined in local new energy promotion plans regarding \"charging stations accompanying vehicles.\" The development of distributed charging station networks should emphasize the concept of a \"network\". Initially, there may be just a few stations, but as the number of users increases and the scale expands, these stations will spread out from isolated points to form a network that serves the entire city. This is the ecological structure of urban charging infrastructure in the future. Of course, those who build their networks earlier, on a larger scale, and with higher service standards will be able to gain a competitive advantage in this industry. Due to the characteristics of decentralized charging station networks, such as unattended operation and self-service by users, these charging stations need to have a high level of security, an user-friendly interface, and intelligent service terminals. Additionally, monitoring platforms and operational maintenance teams are required – these are all essential functions that decentralized charging station networks must possess. IV. Conclusion: In the development of charging infrastructure, we need innovative thinking to make use of limited resources in order to meet users’ needs. We should provide energy solutions from the users’ perspective, shifting gradually from personalized needs to common ones, thereby establishing a city-wide charging infrastructure network. In this process, installing charging stations can suffice to meet users’ demands; there is no need to invest excessive resources in building charging stations that are not efficient. Therefore, we should avoid straying from the proper path in the development of charging infrastructure.