From Construction Planning to Operation for Heavy Truck Charging Station (No. 4 of the serialized articles)
06 Calculation of the return on investment of self-built charging stations for new energy heavy trucks
1. Site Space
Picture this: You are in China and own 9 large trucks, with each measuring about 2.7 meters in width and 15 meters in length. To ensure there's sufficient room for them to park and turn around with ease, a spacious parking lot is required for them. Ideally, each of such parking lot should be about 3.5 meters wide and 17 meters long.
2. Construction Costs
The investment for a charging station for large trucks includes buying charging equipment, applying for and installing transformers, laying cables, doing civil engineering (such as digging, building houses, etc.), and some other supporting items. Usually, people build charging stations based on the ratio of three vehicles to one charging pile with two charging guns. The costs of a charging station for 9 large trucks total about CNY 800,000.
3. Operation and Maintenance Costs
If you build a charging station yourself, you will need to find someone to help look after and maintain it. For example, you opened a gas station and hired a worker. The worker’s daily responsibilities primarily involve making routine inspections. He need to truckefully check the surroundings to see whether all the facilities are operating as intended and identify any malfunctioning or damaged components that need repairing. The monthly salary would be around CNY 6,000.
4. Anticipation of Revenue
The electricity rates at new energy charging stations aren't fixed as the price of electricity is affrected a number of factors. For instance, daily electricity consumption volume, whether it's during peak electricity usage hours, and even the weather conditions – be it extremely hot or cold – all play a role in determining the electricity price. But there's no need to be overly apprehensive. On average, a rough estimate puts the cost per kilowatt-hour at around 60 cents.
We have a super awesome battery-powered truck here whose battery is a monster which can hold 423 kWh of electricity! The truck runs 350 kilometers a day, and it consumes 1.2 kWh of electricity for every kilometer. Have you ever wondered how much electricity it consumes on a daily basis? Well, a staggering 420 kWh! That's like a power-hungry behemoth with an insatiable appetite. It is a perfect example of how remarkably durable this battery truly is, capable of sustaining such high energy demands.
Here, there is a hardworking truck brother. It is out on the road for about 25 days a month. After finishing work every day, it has to go home to "fill its stomach", that is, to recharge. Let's calculate how much "meals" it eats in a month based on the distance it runs every day and how much electricity it consumes per kilometer. Can you guess? Hey, the result is amazing. It actually consumes 10,500 kWh of electricity in a month! This guy has a really big appetite! This appetite is really not small!
Meet our hardworking “Truck Brother” here. Every month, it spends roughly 25 days on the road. Once the daily work wraps up, it goes back home to “refuel” – or in this case, recharge. Now, let's crunch some numbers. By taking in the daily mileage it clocks and the amount of electricity it guzzles per kilometer, we can know its monthly “energy diet.” And you know what? The result is truly jaw-droppiong. In a single month, it gobbles an astonishing 10,500 kWh of electricity, just like a bottomless pit! This “Truck Brother” surely knows how to pack away the power!
That is to say, when you charge your truck, it does not mean that it can actually use the amount of electricity you put in. In the middle, a small part of the electricity will be like a little naughty thing that slips away and disappears without a trace. Let's take an analogy, suppose you charge 100 degrees of electricity, in fact, the truck may only use 95 degrees. It's like you bought 100 apples, but due to various reasons, such as some are rotten or lost, in the end you may only be able to eat 95 apples. Get it, that's what I mean!
Let's calculate how much it the monthly costs of charge this truck. As the previous result shows that 10,500 kWh of electricity is consumed. If the price per kWh is CNY 0.6, then the costs are CNY 6,300. However, just like when you buy something, sometimes the weight displayed on the package is not the same as the actual weight. The charging pile will also have some loss when charging. Let's assume that the loss rate is 5%. So, the actual amount to be paid is a little more, not as simple as CNY 6,300, and the 5% loss must be included.
How to calculate it specifically? Just multiply 10,500 kWh of electricity by CNY 0.6, and then divide it by (1-5%), and the result is CNY 6,632.
5. ROI calculation
From the above comparison, we can see that if you build a charging station for your own truck, it will save you a lot of money compared to going to a public charging station outside. You can save about CNY 47,162 in a single month. If you only count the money saved, it will take about 16 months for the money you spent on building the charging station to be recovered.
However, we have not counted the situation where you open the charging station to other people. In this case, you may make more money and the time to recover the cost may be shorter.
If your charging station can also open to the public, and there are many large trucks around that need to charge, say, 30 large trucks come to your place for replenishment every day, then you may not even have to wait for a year to reap back the cost of building the station. After that, income form the charging station will be pure profits for you.
Stay tuned for subsequent updates, to be continued.
