The Ten - year Game of Charging Interconnection: From "Grassroots Entrepreneurship" to "Ecological Win - Win", How Far Are We from Lei Jun's Expectations?
Lei Jun, a deputy to the National People's Congress, proposed the suggestion of "charging facility interconnection" during the Two Sessions, pointing directly at the pain points of the industry. However, few people know that this battle to break through the "information island" of charging has lasted for ten years - from early entrepreneurs using their own money to collect data, to the state - owned enterprises stepping in to integrate resources, and then to the love - hate relationship between car companies and operators today. How to promote the breakthrough of the industry through technological innovation? Let's see how far we are from the real "charging freedom".
The Pioneering Era (2015 - 2017): The Primitive Stage of "Paper Map + Card - Swiping Charging"
In 2015, new - energy vehicle owners were still "blindly looking" for charging piles relying on the paper maps of the State Grid and the Excel spreadsheets of Potevio New Energy. The turning point came with the birth of the "charging pile APP". The team used its own funds to mobilize car owners to be "charging pile detectives" and collected charging pile data with cash rewards. After difficult accumulation, the data interconnection with TELD was achieved for the first time in 2016, and the cross - operator QR - code payment was completed in 2017, making it possible to "charge across the country with one APP". However, this road to interconnection is full of challenges. As a certain operator directly put it: "How much money can you give us for opening up the data?" This sentence reveals the realistic dilemma of the industry's interest game.
While the industry was still busy with data collection, this enterprise established in Nanjing had already started to research and develop intelligent charging solutions. Its early - layout high - power charging technology later became a key weapon to break through the technical barriers in the European and American markets.
The Era (2018 - 2021): The Entry of State - owned Enterprises and the "Money - Burning War" of Platforms
In 2018, the State Grid took the lead in establishing "Lianhang Technology" and jointly built the "Lianhang Yichong" platform with four major operators, attempting to unify the charging market. However, due to the contradiction in interest distribution, it left the stage gloomily after only one year. At the same time, Internet platforms such as Didi's "Xiaoju Charging" and Alipay's "Ant Charging" entered the market one after another, setting off a subsidy war, which triggered a strong backlash from operators. In 2020, three leading operators including TELD collectively cut off the charging interface of Xiaoju. This melee reflects the deep - seated contradictions in the industry: Operators are worried about becoming "platform workers", while platforms are afraid of data cutoff. The two sides are caught in a tug - of - war of both cooperation and vigilance. To this day, this deadlock has not been completely broken. Data shows that in 2024, 30% of the charging piles in the country still cannot achieve interconnection due to protocol differences.
AEAUTO chose a more hardcore breakthrough path. In 2019, it launched the modular charging pile technology, which supports the compatibility of CCS/CHAdeMO/GBT multi - protocols and is like a "universal converter" to adapt to the mainstream vehicle models in the world. It is with this technology that AEAUTO won the first batch order in the European market and became one of the earliest domestic charging pile enterprises to go overseas.
The Current Dilemma: The "Ideal and Reality" of Lei Jun's Suggestion
The current charging industry is facing three dilemmas:
- Fragmentation of technical standards: Multiple protocols such as NACS/CCS/GB/T coexist, and a unified platform needs to coordinate the interests of car companies, charging pile enterprises, and the power grid.
- Difficulty in interest distribution: After operators have invested heavily in building charging piles, it is difficult to balance data opening and income protection.
- The paradox of user experience: Even if Xiaomi has access to more than 140,000 third - party charging piles, car owners still suffer from problems such as "incompatible QR - codes and unlinked ground locks".
The solution of AEAUTO is to "penetrate the barriers with technology". Its newly developed 600 - kW liquid - cooled super - charging pile has passed the CE certification and achieved cross - brand compatibility for Tesla, Volkswagen, etc. in Europe. The V2G technology transforms the charging pile into an "energy storage station", allowing users to charge at low - electricity - price valleys and sell electricity in the opposite direction at high - price peaks, which not only relieves the pressure on the power grid but also creates a new income model for operators.
The Way to Break the Dilemma: From "Forced Unification" to "Ecological Incentive"
Ten - year exploration has proved that the interconnection of the charging industry cannot rely on administrative orders to "cut with one knife". To build an ecological system of "win - win for all builders", the interweaving of three forces is needed:
- Policy guidance: For example, Lei Jun suggested formulating a national standard for communication protocols while reserving room for innovation.
- Business innovation: Establish a charging volume sharing mechanism to enable operators and platforms to share benefits.
- Technological breakthrough: Similar to the modular charging pile and the integrated photovoltaic - energy storage - charging solution of AEAUTO, break the software barriers with hardware compatibility.
The global practice of AEAUTO is verifying this path. The batch order from Romania in 2024 marks that its technical solution has passed the strict European verification. In China, the integrated photovoltaic - energy storage - charging stations have begun to be implemented. Through the closed - loop of "photovoltaic power generation - energy storage - charging", the utilization rate of green electricity has been increased to over 90%.
Interconnection is not the end, but a seamless experience is.
After ten years of game - playing, the industry finally realizes that the true meaning of charging freedom is not to let users see "interconnection", but to make it as natural as refueling. When the liquid - cooled super - charging pile of AEAUTO enables European car owners to seamlessly adapt to various vehicle models, and when the V2G technology quietly balances the power grid fluctuations, we may be approaching that ideal state - as Lei Jun said: "User experience is the core, and the key to future success lies in who can make people forget about the technology itself."
