How does The operation of Didi's agitated charging pile market platform leverage the heavy asset sector?

Recently, a forum on "Building a Global Energy Internet for UN 2030 sustainable Development" was held at the UN headquarters in New York. Cheng Wei, founder, chairman and CEO of Didi, was invited to give a keynote speech. Cheng revealed that Didi has joined hands with The Global Energy Internet Development Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) to set up a global new energy vehicle service company to provide new energy vehicle services through the establishment of new energy vehicle supporting service industries such as charging and changing electricity system, power storage and battery reuse. Didi's new energy development path is to promote the rapid iteration and popularization of new energy vehicles by serving new energy vehicles.

As early as around 2014, the model of "Internet + charging pile" had a small upsurge of development. Didi Chuxing's entry model is not new, and the layout in advance may grab the market opportunity before the new energy special vehicles have yet to form scale effect. However, it seems that the pain point of the electric pile industry cannot be solved by an asset-light operation platform like Didi Chuxing.

A number of industry veterans interviewed told reporters that in the current market environment, Didi's entry is more about activating the market and optimizing some services, so it is difficult to operate the APP terminal of unified charging pile by virtue of Didi's digital operation.

Strong operational access

Didi officially said that by 2020, it will take the lead in promoting more than 1 million new energy vehicles on the platform, and prepare to build a new energy vehicle charging and switching system to realize a nationwide "network of piles" through open cooperation. Didi said it already has 260,000 new energy vehicle drivers on the platform. In addition to platform users, Didi will also serve ordinary C-terminal users or other new energy vehicle users. Didi is building a new energy charging and switching system called Xiaoju Charging.

The longer the driving range of new energy vehicles, the more obvious the cost advantage. Didi said that the average daily mileage of a typical fuel-powered car operating on its platform is 4.5 to 5 times that of a domestic fuel-powered car.

"Didi's 260,000 evs account for almost 20 per cent of registered drivers on its platform and a third of all electric passenger cars in society. Combined with data from large-scale electric vehicles, Didi can guide electric vehicles to charge more rationally based on the status of vehicles and future orders." Kou Nannan, a senior analyst at Bloomberg New energy finance and automobile, told reporters. "According to Didi's plan, the next step is to incorporate larger private charging piles into the platform to further improve the charging convenience of electric vehicles."

In fact, Didi started to cooperate with some new energy vehicle companies as early as 2015 to replace and replace its platform vehicles. In August 2016, Yang Jun, didi's vice president in charge of automotive business, publicly stated that Didi pays great attention to the development of new energy vehicles and wants to become an operator of new energy vehicles and charging piles. Yang said Didi plans to integrate the entire operator platform, and through the pile networking, it will increase the stickability of pile users, improve the utilization rate of electric piles, and also improve the operating efficiency of electric pile enterprises.

In August 2016, Didi teamed up with Nanjing Wanbang New Energy Automobile Co., LTD. (also known as Xing Xing Charging). In October this year, Didi also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Qingdao Tecaller New Energy Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Tecaller").

"We believe that within a very short period of time, new energy vehicles will be the first to be popularized in operational transportation systems." In Cheng's opinion, the integration of information, transportation and energy networks is an important measure to promote sustainable urban development in the future, and new energy vehicles will become the "singularity" of the interaction between the energy Internet and the transportation Internet.

Multiple competitive

As of 2016, there were nearly 150,000 public charging piles in China, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The top four operators (State Grid, Putian New Energy, Xing Xing Charging and XITao) account for 85 per cent of the market, with 40 companies in operation. The reporter searched the Android mobile phone system client and found that there were nearly 100 apps serving charging.

According to the cooperation between the two sides, Didi can bring capital investment to private charging pile enterprises like The Company and import some user traffic of Didi drivers, but Didi is an asset-light operation platform, so it is difficult to get involved in the early laying of charging piles on a large scale, an internal middle-level manager told reporters. But now, even with didi's blessing, it is still some time away from profitability. Kou Nannan also made a similar statement. According to him, the four major operators have disclosed a time horizon of 2030 for generating profits, which reflects the long ROI cycle of the sector.

"Even with didi's deep pockets, it's no match for official institutions." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of China Passenger Car Market Information Association, said. According to his analysis, the initial investment of charging pile market can not be solved by capital alone, but also needs power grid expansion, urban planning, etc., and requires unified coordination at the national level, involving complex links, which cannot be solved by a single private enterprise.

In addition, didi's prospective APP platform alliance has also been a pioneer in the market, and may not be willing to access Didi's ports in the future. Recently, the vehicle networking platform affiliated to State Grid has launched connectivity cooperation with 17 charging operators, committed to the unified access of charging piles and unified payment. According to the report of Bohai Securities Research Institute, the completion of this platform breaks through the situation of charging operators fighting for themselves, which is helpful to solve the interconnection and interworking of charging piles. After the release of the new GB, the hardware compatibility has been basically realized, but there is still an interest game between operators for the problem of user terminal traffic entry. In addition to strong competitors like State Grid, which has a say in capacitance and electricity prices, taxi groups that have traditionally competed with Didi may not be willing to use the platform, according to the senior operator. What's more, the larger market space in the future is for the users of C-end, and there is no good solution in this field at present. "Didi's entry only adds to the traffic circle, but its contribution to The pile is limited." Said the special call management said. In his opinion, Didi's entry can attract more attention from the industry by virtue of its brand effect. With the development of cooperation, a virtuous circle has been formed to attract additional investment from a number of enterprises, which is far more important than Didi's investment in charging pile industry itself.