Teladian, which charges 2.98 yuan per kilowatt-hour, has kicked off a general increase in charging fees. Don’t let saving money on electric vehicles become a joke

"Why do you buy a tram?" Faced with this question, if policy restrictions are not taken into account, most tram owners will give the same answer: to save money.

Faced with rising oil prices, many consumers have chosen electric vehicles. Someone once did the math and found that based on a monthly mileage of 1,000 kilometers, the monthly fuel cost of a fuel vehicle is between 800 and 1,000 yuan. However, if an electric vehicle is used, the monthly charging cost is less than 200 yuan.

If the driving distance is extended to 15,000 kilometers per year, the fuel cost of a fuel car is 0.6 yuan per kilometer on average, and the fuel cost for 15,000 kilometers is about 9,000 yuan. If it is replaced by an electric car, the electricity cost is about 7 cents per kilometer, and the electricity cost for 15,000 kilometers is about 1,000 yuan, which can save about 8,000 yuan per year.

Calculated in this way, the operating cost of electric vehicles is indeed lower than that of gasoline vehicles. However, all this only exists under ideal conditions where there will be no "cheating".

The annual Spring Festival travel rush has begun, and many people working away from home have begun to return to their hometowns, some of whom choose to drive the train home. These people set out on their way home with joy, thinking in their minds how wise their decision was. Leaving early not only avoids traffic jams, but also avoids the long charging queues on the highway last year. It is worth giving up the free highway to get home early.

However, when they entered a service area to charge after driving several hundred kilometers, they were surprised to find that the usual electricity price of 1.6 yuan per kWh had suddenly almost doubled to 2.98 yuan per kWh.

A few days ago, a netizen said that the charging fee of the Teladian charging station at Dayu Service Area of ​​Kangda Expressway in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province is 2.98 yuan per kilowatt-hour, which is more expensive than refueling a gasoline car.

One netizen said: "When a normal electric car is driving on the highway, the power consumption is generally above 18kWh/100km. According to this simple calculation, without considering the loss during charging, the cost per 100 kilometers is 18x2.98=53.6 yuan."

In recent years, China's electric vehicle sales have been rising. In 2022, my country's new energy vehicle sales reached 6.887 million units, a year-on-year increase of 93.4%; in 2023, new energy vehicle sales reached 9.495 million units, a year-on-year increase of 37.9%.

The Ministry of Public Security stated on January 11 that by the end of 2023, the national new energy vehicle ownership will reach 20.41 million vehicles, accounting for 6.07% of the total number of vehicles; among them, the number of pure electric vehicles will be 15.52 million vehicles, accounting for 76.04% of the new energy vehicle ownership.

For these 15.52 million pure electric vehicles, charging is a rigid need. However, in the eyes of some charging service providers, these car owners have become the targets of their sickle-wielding harvest.

The sudden increase in charging prices during the Spring Festival rush may just be the beginning of a general increase in charging prices. Since service providers can raise fees at high-speed charging stations, who can guarantee that they will not raise prices at urban charging stations in the future?

In fact, as early as 2023, there were signs of rising charging costs.

According to media reports, data showed that the price of charging piles across the country increased by 87% in the second half of 2023, and the charging prices in some cities even doubled.

Those who use electric cars to run online ride-hailing vehicles have the most say on the rising charging costs.

A ride-hailing driver in Zhengzhou, Henan said: "My charging fee has obviously increased. It used to be 1,200 yuan a month, but now it is up to 1,500 yuan. It has indeed increased a lot. Especially after August, it has increased by about 20 to 30 percent."

There has always been a considerable number of consumers who refuse to accept new energy vehicles, especially pure electric vehicles, and their main reason is that charging is inconvenient. In urban environments, if electric car owners do not have their own parking spaces, it is quite difficult for them to build their own charging piles. In this case, public charging stations are their main way to recharge.

What is even more frightening is that as the market share of electric vehicles continues to increase, there is also the possibility that the price of home charging piles will increase in the future. If electric car owners can no longer enjoy the residential electricity price when using private charging piles, then their car costs will rise significantly, even exceeding that of traditional fuel vehicles. This will hit the market demand for electric vehicles and affect the development and popularization of new energy vehicles.

If charging costs rise, electric vehicles will lose their biggest advantage, especially when charging is already a relatively troublesome task. In addition, the lengthy approval procedures for private charging piles, long charging times, and uneven distribution of charging stations may become more prominent due to the increase in charging costs. Consumers may begin to reconsider their car purchase choices.

When it comes to whether to accept electric vehicles, consumers naturally fall into three camps: the accepters, the wavering camp, and the oil-saving camp. If electricity prices really rise across the board, it will only discourage consumers who have already purchased electric vehicles and make the wavering camp lean towards the oil-saving camp, making electric vehicles a "troublesome and uneconomical" way of travel for long-distance travel.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.