Announcements of plans to stop selling fuel vehicles have been issued one after another by major car companies around the world.

Replacing oil with electricity is an irreversible trajectory for the automotive industry, but in Europe and the United States, charging stations as infrastructure do not seem to have "kept up". The OECD conducted a survey last year, and one-third of respondents in some European countries said that there were no charging stations within 3 kilometers of their homes.

There are many cars and few chargers, which is good news for companies that do business around charging. From selling components and hardware to making charging stations, operating charging stations, and even developing third-party platforms for finding them, there are a lot of opportunities in between.

Electric cars and EV chargers are like "chicken and egg".

Replacing oil cars with electricity requires enough charging stations. The increase in electric cars will drive up the demand for charging. Charging is more convenient and makes consumers more willing to buy electric cars.

AFID (Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Directive) recommends that each public charging station serve 10 electric vehicles, that is, the public car-to-station ratio is 10:1. However, most European countries have not met this standard, and the car-to-station ratio in the United States is even higher - 16 vehicles use 1 charging station.

In order to speed up the "oil-to-electricity" policy, Europe and the United States issued policy guidelines for the construction of charging stations as early as 2019. For example, the EU plans to deploy 1 million public stations by 2025.

However, the European and American markets have strict requirements for charging station products, and the product certification cycle is long. In addition, the early policies are basically guided by quantity, so the construction and operation of charging stations have not caused a big wave.

It was not until 2022 that the economic subsidy policy for charging stations was truly implemented.

For example, in Germany, high-power stations above 100KW have the opportunity to enjoy a subsidy of up to 30,000 euros, AC public stations have a maximum subsidy of 2,500 euros, and private stations have a maximum subsidy of 900 euros. The core policy of the United States is the federal government's $5 billion subsidy for public charging station construction and the corresponding tax credit for charging stations for IRAs.

AC stations are mostly oriented to C-end users, and have a similar business model to household energy storage in overseas markets - more emphasis on brand effect and channel construction. Breaking the stereotype of "charging stations are electrical industrial products" in appearance and providing a smooth human-computer interaction experience are one of the keys to building brand awareness for AC stations.

For DC stations, which are mainly oriented to B-end customers, the core point of competition is cost-effectiveness. The main source of income for European and American charging operators is not charging services such as electricity bills and service fees, but the sale of charging stations. In the downstream operation link, although the United States and some European countries have provided subsidies for the construction of charging stations, like in China, operating charging stations cannot be regarded as a good business.

The reason is that the operation of charging stations requires rent on the one hand and prepayment of electricity bills on the other hand, with large initial investment and a long payback period. In China, when the utilization rate reaches about 15%, a well-planned electric vehicle charging station takes 4-5 years to achieve profitability. Fast charging has always been the demand of electric car owners. In addition to homes and workplaces, fast charging is also required in highways, shopping mall parking lots and other scenarios.

However, there is a huge disparity in the number of AC and DC charging stations in the European and American markets. In the United States, only 25% of public charging stations are fast-charging DC stations, and in Europe, only 10%.

With certain demand and sufficient policy subsidies, the market growth rate of fast-charging DC stations can be foreseen. The Securities Research Institute predicts that the market space for DC stations in Europe will reach 18.7 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 76% from 22 to 25 years, and the market space for DC stations in the United States will be 7.9 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 112% from 22 to 25 years. The European market is currently dominated by AC charging stations, but the market share of fast charging stations is relatively small, only 13%, while the global fast charging stations account for 33%. This shows that the European fast charging station market has huge room for growth. At the same time, the proportion of fast charging stations in the US market has continued to increase, from 7.9% in 2016 to 21.9% in 2022, showing the market's urgent need for fast charging solutions. Overall, the European and American charging station markets have shown broad development space under the dual effects of policy promotion and market demand. If Chinese companies can grasp the advantages of technology and supply chain, complete the corresponding standard certification, and accelerate entry into overseas markets, they will have the opportunity to enjoy the dividends brought by the rapid growth of the industry.