NANJING, China, Dec. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Bloomberg held the 2021 New Energy Finance (BNEF) Summit Shanghai online this year. This invitation-only global summit brings together executives and experts from around the world in the energy, industry, transportation, and technology sectors to discuss many important issues surrounding China’s quest to achieve carbon neutrality. During the event, top-level executives from YKC Clean Energy Technologies (YKC Charging), an EV charging and energy management services provider, were invited to participate in the conference and hold in-depth discussions at the session on charging infrastructure with industry leaders from China and abroad on the EV charging industry’s pain points, corporate values, and market development trends.
According to Frank N. Chen, chief operating officer of YKC Charging, there are two pain points in China’s EV charging market at present. “One is the slow return on investment, and the other is uneven development.” On the one hand, Mr. Chen pointed out that car owners feel that the number of available charging stations is far from sufficient. But, on the other hand, EV Charge Point Operator (CPO) finds that the business is not profitable as supply exceeds demand. Firstly, such an inconsistency partially results from “the fact that quite some CPOs do not put efforts to manage day-to-day operational efficiency but simply treat EV charging piles as a vending machine.” Secondly, it is difficult for operators to find sites for building new charging stations in some cities. Thirdly the growing high cost of expansion, rent, and maintenance has proven to be a substantial obstacle to CPO’s investment.
As Mr. Chen explained, YKC Charging has developed several well-crafted solutions to address these problems for CPOs. The first is to boost traffic flow. YKC Charging builds marketing channels and connects local fleet customers to ensure CPOs reach as many customers as possible. The second is to cut costs. YKC Charging reduced operating costs through a series of product-oriented solutions. For example, the company developed and launched an EV charging equipment maintenance service this year, reducing CPOs’ costs by finding and booking local independent providers online. The third is to increase charing operational efficiency with Energy Management System (EMS) technology. YKC Charging invests heavily in proprietary and disruptive technology R&D involving both software and hardware. YKC Charing is committed to providing new-gen machine-learning-based EMS for EV charing market.
When it comes to the common concern of “how will China’s EV charging market develop in the future,” in Mr. Chen’s opinion, both policies and actions taken by all parties involved will influence the future landscape of the market. However, in any case, the site as a critical resource must be made available first to construct the charging station. From the perspective of site selection and acquisition, local CPOs have more excellent opportunities. “Looking down the road, in the EV charging market, like other sectors, industry leaders will take certain market share, with a large number of regional operators co-existing in a fragmented and decentralized manner.”
When asked “how to stand out from the market competition” at the session, Mr. Chen pointed out that YKC Charging has two laser-like focuses that assure competitive advantage. One is rapid growth, and the other is value creation. “We should act as a positive driver for the market and the ‘carbon neutral’ cause,” he said. Getting into a price war will only cause hesitation for new investors and players who want to jump in, preventing the industry from rapid and healthy development. Companies across the sector need to invest more in products and technologies and help eco-chain partners bring down costs and improve efficiency through better products and services to stand out from competition ultimately.
YKC Charging, which has focused on serving EV Charge Point Operator (CPO) for many years, has created the largest third-party EV charging SaaS platform in China. So far, the platform has helped more than 3,000 CPOs in some 330 cities. In 2021, after three rounds of financing in nine months, YKC Charging brought in key industrial investors, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), NIO Capital and OPPO Co Ltd signaling that prospects are promising.