Public charging piles are not easy to use? Urban services need to keep up
According to media reports, newly released new car sales data shows that the proportion of new energy vehicles in China increased from 1/8 in 2021 to 1/4 in 2022. However, the problem of charging piles supporting new energy vehicles still troubles many car owners. Many car owners report that it is still not easy to use public charging piles when going out. It is not uncommon that the mobile APP shows there are idle charging piles nearby, but people arrive following navigation only to find nothing available. Some people even joke that "the last 50 kilometers of battery life of a new energy vehicle is reserved for finding charging piles".
In fact, the "painful experience" of many new energy vehicle owners looking for charging piles is a manifestation of the "growing pains" of rapid urban development. The mass launch of new energy vehicles has tested the service level of urban public facilities in all aspects. Behind a public charging pile, there are actually many problems related to urban governance. Solving this kind of problem does not only mean increasing the number of charging piles, but should be considered from a broader perspective. The difficulty of parking in cities, the facility transformation of old residential areas, and the upgrading of public service equipment — any shortcoming in any link actually reduces the effectiveness of new things.
At the same time, the arrival of new things is also putting forward new requirements for urban public service facilities, and this overall situation requires a more precise layout. At the press conference on China's industrial and information technology development in 2022, Tian Yulong, chief engineer and spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that by the end of 2022, a total of 5.21 million charging piles had been built across the country. That is to say, on average, 2.5 new energy vehicles can be allocated to one charging pile nationwide.
It can be seen from the comparison of data that on the one hand, the total number of charging piles is large, and on the other hand, new energy vehicle owners still worry about charging piles, which also reflects the problems of accessibility and balance of public service facilities. For example, when charging pile resources are concentrated in new residential areas and new urban areas, is there a guaranteed solution for the charging problem in old residential areas? When a large number of market entities enter the new energy charging market, are the paid services reasonably priced and guaranteed in a timely manner? These require clearer solutions. Solving the difficult charging problem of new energy vehicles requires finding universal rules against the public background of urban space, and also requires targeted solutions.
At the same time, it should also be noted that in this era of rapid economic development and continuous emergence of technological achievements, the planning of social public space should reserve enough space for possible new things in the future. When technological change of life has become a consensus, more space should be provided for the implementation and application of technology at this time. However, just like the breakthrough of new technologies, urban governance is also a huge and complex systematic project. It can be very large, covering all aspects of the city; it can also be very small, as small as a charging pile, a sign and so on. But the new issues between supply and demand brought by new things require continuous attention and response from urban managers.
From this perspective, charging piles are actually a microcosm of urban development. Individual charging piles do not take up too much urban space, but the shortcomings of public services reflected behind them are worthy of attention. New things like charging piles are like a catalyst, prompting cities to improve the deficiencies in the original people's livelihood basic services while developing. This is perhaps the most worthy of expectation.