Charging Station Operation: A Guide to Profitability and Pitfalls
The new energy vehicle industry has promising market prospect. As a significant part of the "new infrastructure" for new energy vehicles, many people have seen the development potential of EV chargers and want to share this pie. However, they are unclear about how the charging pile industry makes money. MARUIKEL has summarized ten profit-making methods and operation "pitfall-avoiding" guidelines for new energy vehicle charging stations, hoping to be helpful to everyone.
Ten Profit-making Models for Charging Station Operations
1. Charging Service Fees
This is the most basic and most common profit model for most charging station operators at present-earning money by charging a service fee per kilowatt-hour.
Take China as an example: In 2014, the National Development and Reform Commission issued regulations to clarify that charging facility operators can charge electric vehicle users for electricity and charging service fees, and charging electricity fees shall be implemented in accordance with national regulations. Of course, the amount earned varies according to different regions. At present, some provinces and cities have clearly defined the charging standards for electric vehicle charging and swapping services. Currently, the average service fee per kilowatt-hour is about CNY 0.3 to CNY 0.5. Due to differences in expenditures and rents, the profits in different locations and different operation stages will also vary.
2. Government Subsidies
According to the "Guidelines on Incentive Policies for Promoting the Construction and Promotion of New Energy Vehicle Charging Infrastructure" jointly issued by many governments and relevant departments, countries or regions must achieve a certain scale of new energy vehicle promotion and application if they want to obtain financial incentives and subsidies for the construction and operation of new energy vehicle charging infrastructure. So far, many countries around the world have successively introduced subsidy policies for the development plan of new energy vehicle charging infrastructure, and these policies cover cities in many countries or regions.
3. Reduce Electricity Costs
The future direction of charging stations must be related to energy storage. For example, through the form of photovoltaic power generation, generating electricity during the peak of photovoltaic power and discharging during the valley of electricity consumption, and storing electricity when the electricity price is high. This process not only helps to reduce users' electricity bills but also improves energy utilization efficiency and the stability of the power grid. Buying electricity at a lower price gives a cost advantage under the same market conditions. At present, there is no obvious industry barrier in the charging station industry, and users will definitely follow the station.
4. Advertising
Imagine if thousands of charging piles are standing on the streets, shrewd advertisers will not miss such a great opportunity, which is really a good income for charging companies. However, factors such as whether the advertising is targeted and whether it will arouse disgust among charging customers need to be considered, but it can still be regarded as a considerable way to make profits.
5. Charging Platform Services
Developing your own scanning code charging platform or mini-program is quite challenging, but the potential return is also substantial.
6. Value-added Services
Self-service car-washing at the charging station is popular. In addition, you can also open a store or self-service vending machine in the venue near the charging station to make profits by selling goods. However, this requires reinvesting part of the assets in the cost of opening a store, appropriately considering the purchasing needs of charging personnel, and requiring a certain amount of manpower support, etc. Once the retail service format is opened, the effect is also remarkable. It is also feasible to carry out charging and electricity value-added services for other equipment.
7. Transportation Tools Rental Service
The owners of EVs may still be some distance away from their destination, and perhaps their workplace does not have charging piles, so the charging pile operator can solve the problem of the last few kilometers for the owners. By renting electric scooters, bicycles, balance bikes and other means of transportation tools to EV owners, it can not only facilitate the owners' round-trips but also generate revenue for the operators themselves.
8. Parking Space Management
Many mega cities are currently facing the problem of parking space shortage, and parking difficulty has become a common issue. If the charging station has sufficient space, it can also build its own garage for new energy vehicles, which can not only make full use of the existing charging piles but also solve part of the parking problem.
9. Supporting Catering and Entertainment Facilities Services
At present, most of the public charging stations in society are built on public parking spaces. Charging is divided into fast and slow charging and super charging, and the charging time ranges from 30 minutes to 6 hours. The long waiting time discourages some car owners. By building charging stations and adding convenience stores, small entertainment facilities or wireless network services to make them more user-friendly and diversified can improve the utilization rate of charging piles.
10. Create a Charging Network Ecosystem
The charging network is the basis of all profit models. It does not rely on charging service fees to make profits. Instead of relying on charging service fees for profit, using the charging network as an entrance to create a charging, sales, leasing, and 4S value-added service system; carrying out multiple additional businesses to achieve the integration of the charging network, the Internet of Vehicles, and the Internet, maximizing value and profit.
"Pit-avoiding" Guidelines for Charging Station Operations
What are the "pitfalls" when investing, building and operating charging stations?
Everyone is rushing into the charging station industry, why is your business so bad? It is likely due to the following four reasons:
1. Improper Location Selection
Some operators responded that they did not conduct on-site inspections before selecting a site, and the selected address was remote, even without signboards, making it difficult to find by navigation, and not much traffic. Moreover, gasoline-powered vehicles often occupy the parking spaces. This led to a "pitfall" from the beginning of the site selection, resulting in many difficulties in subsequent operations.
2. Numerous Issues with Charging Equipment
Some operators only invest in building stations blindly, but ignore many details, especially various safety issues of charging equipment, such as not installing awnings or taking other rainproof and waterproof measures, resulting in the charging piles becoming "zombie piles" when the rain comes. Moreover, some charging stations have old charging equipment, slow charging speed, often easy to break, and few charging pile parking spaces. In this way, users will inevitably have a grudge, and naturally it will be difficult for them to return to charge.
3. Low Operational Awareness
The operation of charging stations is also an art. Many charging station operators "only build piles without operating them", which is another "pitfall". For example, there are no after-sales service personnel to promptly solve the problems encountered by new energy electric vehicle owners during charging. The operating personnel lack service awareness, have no enthusiasm for customers, and do not have any activities to maintain customer relationships, which is not conducive to the long-term development of charging stations.
4. Incomplete Supporting Service Facilities
Charging station operators do not pay attention to relevant supporting service facilities during operation, falling into the "pitfall" again. For instance, it often takes a while for car owners to wait for charging, but there are no small supermarkets, catering, leisure and entertainment places, and even no toilets around the charging station. There is no car-washing service after charging is completed, and the charging site charges for parking. The charging station environment is chaotic, and the vehicles are arranged in a chaotic manner. All these will affect the mood of car owners when charging, and it will be difficult to capture the hearts of car owners over time.
How to Avoid Pitfalls in the Construction and Operation of Charging Stations
1. Make Good Location Selection
As the starting point of charging station operation, site selection should be given enough attention. Adequate preparation should be made during location selection to achieve twice the result with half the effort. So, how to make good location selection? Data analysis can be done before location selection, such as statistical research on other charging piles within five kilometers of the charging station, understand their quantity, which platforms they belong to, how powerful they are, how many charging piles are in use, whether there are convenient places for shopping and consumption nearby, and make corresponding data analysis tables. Regarding data survey, taking a certain place as an example, the parking lot of a building in the area is a prime location in the eyes of operators. A large number of Internet companies are concentrated around it. Some people drive to and from get off work, and other employees have a strong demand for online car-hailing services. This conclusion comes from the on-site survey of operators, and some operators will use big data methods such as heat maps to monitor traffic flow.
2. Strict Control
Operators must strictly control the charging equipment of charging stations, try to choose reliable charging piles, and choose well-known charging pile brands like MARUIKEL to control the quality of charging piles from the source. In addition to considering quality issues, the safety of charging piles also needs to be considered. For example, installing a rain-shelter for charging piles to prevent rain, making relevant emergency records, etc., to strictly control the safety of charging stations.
3. Improve Site Visibility
After the site selection and construction are completed, it is also important to promote your own charging pile station and make it well-known among surrounding car owners. For example, charging pile operators can interconnect with car owner apps, map navigation apps, etc., and can also attract the attention of surrounding car owners through opening marketing activities.
4. Do a Good Job in Post-operation
An operator once expressed his point of view: "Building piles is not possible without operation. Now we must ensure that each station is built to achieve maximum profitability." It can be seen that the post-operation also greatly affects the business of charging piles. The operation of charging stations needs to maintain user stickiness as much as possible and do a good job in post-operation. For example, provide a worry-free scanning-code payment experience, regularly issue coupons, conduct raffles, distribute exquisite gifts, establish and carefully maintain user fan groups, etc., to enhance user engagement and obtain more longer-term users.
5. Provide Supporting Service Facilities
The operation of charging stations also needs to take into account many details. For example, due to safety hazards and other factors, some new energy vehicle brands do not recommend that car owners stay in the car during charging. Even for a 120-kilowatt DC fast charging pile, it takes at least half an hour to charge the battery to a usable state. This means that the charging pile or charging station needs to be equipped with supporting service facilities such as restaurants, restrooms, tea-break rooms for leisure and entertainment. This is also one of the factors reflecting the difference in operational capabilities.
