Core Concerns of Charging Station Users and Constructive Improvement Measures

The Five Core Issues Causing Most Anxiety Among Users

Based on the latest market feedback from 2025 (such as user surveys, media reports, and industry reports), the primary concerns of charging station users center around “I. The Five Core Issues Causing Most Anxiety Among Users
Based on the latest market feedback from 2025 (including user surveys, media reports, and industry studies), charging station users’ concerns primarily revolve around four dimensions: “unavailability, poor usability, cost-ineffectiveness, and lack of security.” These can be summarized into the following five high-frequency issues:

1. Poor Equipment Availability: “Finding a station but unable to charge”

Manifestations:
– High number of faulty stations: Some public charging stations remain in “zombie” state due to inadequate maintenance (e.g., three stations at a Nanjing Jianye District plaza have been intermittently malfunctioning since commissioning six months ago).
Incompatibility: Disparate charging port interfaces and payment systems across operators force users to switch between multiple apps, sometimes encountering “vehicle model not recognized after plugging in”;
Low Intelligence: Some stations lack real-time status indicators (e.g., “occupied/malfunctioning”), leading to situations where navigation shows “available” stations that are actually unusable.

2. Unreasonable Layout: “Where needed, none exist; where installed, they sit idle”

Manifestations:
Mismatched Scenarios: Low coverage in essential areas like older residential communities and rural villages (e.g., numerous charging stations at a Nanjing Yuhuatai District mall, yet rural areas face “a charging station a hundred miles away”);
Peak congestion: Insufficient charging stations at “high-frequency scenarios” like highway service areas and urban commercial districts, with holiday queues exceeding 1 hour (e.g., one Henan highway service area sees 300 vehicles queuing daily during holidays);
Poor rural coverage: Insufficient grid capacity and high construction costs in rural areas make installing charging stations “impossible despite intent” (e.g., one Jiangxi village could only install 5 slow-charging stations due to limited grid load).

3. Cumbersome Processes: “Charging feels like navigating obstacles—time-consuming and labor-intensive”
Manifestations:
Payment Hassles: Requires downloading multiple operator apps (e.g., “KuaiDian,” “Star Charge,” ‘Teli’) or switching between WeChat/Alipay, often encountering “scan failures” or “payment timeouts”;
Pole Locator Challenges: Navigation systems lack real-time pole availability data (e.g., “Amap shows a pole, but it’s actually occupied by a gas vehicle”), forcing drivers to “drive around searching for poles”;
Charging Wait Times: Some charging poles have low power (e.g., 60kW slow-charging poles), requiring 4-5 hours to fully charge, forcing drivers to “wait by the pole.”

4. Significant cost pressure: “Charging costs more than fueling—wallets can’t take it”
Manifestations:
Price opacity: Some operators improperly implement “peak-off-peak pricing” (e.g., 1.8 yuan/kWh during peak hours—three times residential rates) or charge exorbitant “parking fees” (e.g., 10 yuan/hour parking fees canceling out charging discounts);
Poor cost-effectiveness: Rural charging stations face higher grid costs, resulting in electricity rates as high as ¥1.2/kWh—50% more than urban areas;
Hidden costs: Gasoline vehicles occupying stations increase “time spent searching for available stations” (e.g., owners losing an hour of travel time due to unavailable stations).

5. Safety and Trust Concerns: “Fear of charging-related fires and data breaches”
Manifestations:
– Safety hazards: Some charging stations pose fire risks due to quality issues (e.g., aging wiring, damaged insulation), such as a residential complex where an overloaded station ignited a fire destroying three electric vehicles; Data security: Some operators excessively collect user information (e.g., phone numbers, charging records), raising owner concerns about “information leaks”;
Delayed maintenance: Faulty stations take 2-3 hours to repair after reporting (e.g., a malfunctioning charging station at a Nanjing mall remained unattended for an hour after being reported).

II. Constructive Improvement Measures and Actionable Steps

To address the aforementioned issues, the following actionable improvement measures are proposed across three dimensions—technological upgrades, management optimization, and policy support—covering three phases: “Short-term (1-3 months), Mid-term (6-12 months), and Long-term (1-3 years)”:

(1) Short-term: Addressing the “Urgent Need”—Enhancing Equipment Availability and Process Convenience
Objective: Rapidly reduce faulty charging station rates, simplify charging procedures, and alleviate user anxiety over “difficulty finding stations and inability to charge.”

1. Equipment Maintenance and Upgrades: Establish a dual-track mechanism of “intelligent operations + manual inspections”

Measures:
Promote “Smart O&M Systems”: Utilize IoT technology to monitor charging station status (e.g., voltage, current, temperature) in real time. Upon detecting faults (e.g., “disconnected charging gun,” “circuit overload”), the system automatically alerts and dispatches maintenance personnel (e.g., State Grid Yiyang Ziyang District Power Supply Company’s “disciplinary inspection + professional patrol” model reduced fault repair time from 6 hours to 2.5 hours).

Conduct “Manual Inspections”: Operators perform weekly on-site checks of charging piles, focusing on issues like “worn charging gun connectors” and “payment system failures” (e.g., Leshan Jiaotou Teli’s “Youth Strike Team” patrols 2,600 kilometers, achieving 99.6% equipment operational efficiency);

Enhance compatibility: Promote unified charging port interfaces among operators (e.g., adopting GB/T 20234 standard) and support “one-code charging” (e.g., Henan’s “Yudian Tong” platform integrates over 100 provincial operators for “scan-to-charge” functionality).

2. Process Optimization: Building a “One-Stop” Charging Service System

Measures:
Integrate navigation and payment: Connect real-time charging station status (e.g., “available/unavailable, operational/malfunctioning”) to Amap and Baidu Maps, enabling drivers to “locate stations, navigate, and pay” directly via maps (e.g., Dongguan Shigu Community’s “photovoltaic-storage-charging” parking lot displays “available spots” on maps with direct navigation).

Simplify Payment Processes: Promote “contactless payment” (e.g., automatic deduction via license plate binding) or adopt “aggregated payment” (e.g., supporting popular apps like PingPong, PayPal, Alipay, WhatsApp), eliminating the hassle of switching apps (e.g., KuaiDian platform’s “one-click payment” supporting over 200 operators);

Offer “Reservation Charging”: For peak hours (e.g., 7-9 PM), introduce a “reservation feature” allowing owners to lock charging stations in advance, avoiding “queuing upon arrival” (e.g., a Shanghai mall’s “reservation charging” achieved a 60% reservation rate and cut queue times by 50%).

(2) Mid-Term: Addressing “Structural Contradictions” — Optimizing Layout and Reducing Costs
Objective: Ensure charging stations are “built where needed,” lower users’ “charging costs,” and alleviate concerns about “unreasonable layouts and uneconomical operations.”

1. Contextualized Layout: Precisely Matching User Needs

Measures:
– Older Residential Areas: Adopt “slow-charging stations + energy storage” model, utilizing off-peak nighttime electricity for storage and daytime discharge to alleviate grid pressure (e.g., a Shenzhen Futian residential complex with 10 120kW charging stations + 500kWh storage reduced operating costs by 23% and boosted utilization to 75%).

Rural Areas: Implement “integrated solar-storage-charging” systems that generate solar power to reduce grid dependency (e.g., a rural charging station in Liaocheng, Shandong, with annual solar generation of 52,000 kWh, achieving an additional annual income of 120,000 yuan through green electricity revenue and peak-off-peak arbitrage);

Highway Service Areas: Deploy “ultra-fast chargers + mobile charging vehicles.” Ultra-fast chargers (480kW) meet rapid charging needs for ride-hailing and private vehicles, while mobile charging vehicles (e.g., Henan’s “off-grid ultra-fast charging equipment”) address holiday “tide-like” demand surges (e.g., a Henan highway service area’s mobile chargers serve 50 vehicles daily, reducing wait times to 30 minutes).

2. Cost Management: Implementing “Peak-Valley Electricity Pricing + Subsidies” Policy

Measures:
Strictly enforce “peak-off-peak electricity pricing”: Require operators to publicly announce “peak/off-peak periods” (e.g., peak 8:00-22:00, off-peak 22:00-8:00), with off-peak rates capped at 0.5 yuan/kWh (e.g., Jiangsu’s policy reduces off-peak charging costs by 60%);

Provide “Construction Subsidies”: Offer subsidies of ¥1,000-2,000 per charging station for installations in older residential areas and rural regions (e.g., Shandong’s “Rural Charging Station Subsidy” program, which aims to build 14,000 new DC stations by 2025 with ¥140 million in funding);

Promote “Charge + Consumption” Models: Partner with shopping malls and tourist attractions to offer incentives like “50 RMB charge gets a free bubble tea voucher” or “2 hours of free parking with charging,” reducing users’ “hidden costs” (e.g., Hangzhou Wulin Yintai charging station saw daily charging volume increase by 35%, driving an 8% rise in mall foot traffic).

(3) Long-Term: Addressing “Fundamental Issues” — Promoting Standardization and Intelligence
Objective: Establish a “unified, intelligent, and sustainable” charging system to alleviate users’ “insecurity” concerns.

1. Standardization Development: Promoting a “National Unified Network”

Measures:
Develop “National Standards for Charging Piles”: Unify pile interfaces, payment systems, and operation/maintenance processes (e.g., the National Development and Reform Commission’s “Three-Year Action Plan for Doubling Electric Vehicle Charging Facility Service Capacity” mandates achieving “nationwide unified charging standards” by the end of 2027);

Establish a “National Charging Service Platform”: Integrate data from nationwide operators to enable “cross-regional, cross-operator” one-click location and payment (e.g., State Grid’s “e-Charge” platform covering 31 provinces with over 50 million users);

Strengthen “Quality Oversight”: Mandate charging stations to obtain “CCC certification” (Compulsory Product Certification) and conduct regular “quality spot checks” (e.g., the State Administration for Market Regulation’s “Special Inspection on Charging Station Quality,” which identified 1,200 non-compliant units by 2025).

2. Intelligent Upgrades: Building a “Vehicle-Grid Interaction” System

Measures:
Promote “Liquid-Cooled Ultra-Fast Charging Technology”: For high-frequency users like ride-hailing and commercial vehicles, deploy 480kW+ liquid-cooled ultra-fast chargers to reduce charging time from 40 to 15 minutes (e.g., Shanghai Xingbang Road Logistics Park’s 600kW ultra-fast charger enables 400km range in 10 minutes, serving 18 vehicles daily with 75% utilization).

Advancing “Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)”: Enabling electric vehicles to feed electricity back into the grid (e.g., owners charging at night with off-peak power and supplying grid power during daytime using vehicle batteries), reducing user “charging costs” (e.g., Jiangsu’s “V2G pilot” program where owners earn 50-100 yuan monthly in “power transmission revenue”);

Implementing “AI-powered intelligent scheduling”: Dynamically allocating charging station power based on user behavior data analysis (e.g., prioritizing ultra-fast chargers during peak hours while redistributing surplus power to slow chargers during off-peak periods), thereby boosting station utilization rates (e.g., an AI scheduling system at a Shenzhen shopping mall increased charging station utilization from 30% to 60%).