The market for developing electric vehicle charging stations in Vietnam is showing positive signs when recently PV Power - Vietnam Oil and Gas Power Corporation, a unit with a market capitalization of about 1.2 billion USD with nearly 80% of shares owned by Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, announced the start of building an investment plan to install and expand the charging station system to expand its scale and business operations.
Policy leverage
The electric vehicle charging station market in Vietnam promises to be very exciting in the coming time.
According to Notice No. 384/TB-VPCP of the Government Office, the Government Standing Committee assigned the Ministry of Construction to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Transport and relevant agencies to urgently review current legal regulations to propose amendments and supplements related to the removal of arising problems related to the installation of electric charging stations/pillars for vehicles at gas stations, and report in August 2024.
Previously, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to urgently submit to the Prime Minister for amendments and supplements to Decision No. 28/2014/QD-TTg regulating the structure of retail electricity prices; in which it is necessary to study, propose and assess the impact of the electricity price support mechanism on electric charging stations serving green vehicles.
The Ministry of Construction shall promptly promulgate and amend regulations and standards for apartment buildings and commercial centers, including regulations on electric charging systems for green vehicles, to be completed before December 31, 2024.
The Ministry of Science and Technology shall promptly promulgate standards (or regulations) on electric plugs, sockets and electric charging cords for green vehicles, to be completed by August 2024.
Notice No. 372/TB-VPCP on the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at the meeting on green vehicle development policies and green vehicle charging station development policies also stated that green energy conversion is the most basic and important task in the process of implementing green growth goals as well as implementing Vietnam's commitments at international conferences.
With the Government's determination in developing green transport, the electric vehicle charging station development market promises to be an additional driving force for development.
In fact, the electric vehicle charging market in Vietnam is still in its infancy when there are not many units developing "powerful" charging stations. Besides the difficulties, there are also opportunities for many businesses to participate in investment.
In addition to VinFast with V-Green as a partner, companies providing electric vehicle charging stations in Vietnam are divided into several groups developing charging stations. The first is genuine charging stations. This group mainly provides charging stations at dealerships and sells home charging to car owners. The public charging station group includes EV One, EverCharge. Next is the group providing home charging, the company is more crowded such as EverEV, GreenCharge, Star Charge, Autel, etc.
In Vietnam, VinFast is the biggest name currently owning a system of charging stations across the country, but the Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer has no intention of sharing. VinFast has also joined hands with Petrolimex and PV Oil to place electric battery charging stations at gas stations across the country. By April, PV Oil had taken advantage of the premises of gas stations to cooperate with VinFast to install electric vehicle charging stations at more than 322 gas stations nationwide. Meanwhile, with third-party units providing more convenient solutions, the charging prices at some locations are quite high, creating a sense of apprehension for consumers.
The charging station issue is the biggest problem that electric vehicle manufacturers and distributors must consider first when selling electric vehicles in Vietnam. Obviously, the Government's orientation is to change consumer habits towards Net Zero, but from the consumer's perspective, without charging stations, companies will certainly find it difficult to convince customers to buy cars. However, on the other hand, if there are not many electric vehicle buyers, investing in charging stations is a risky investment for businesses.
Most recently, PV Power signed a cooperation agreement with EN Technologies Inc. to research and develop a charging station system in Vietnam.
PV Power's first pilot electric vehicle charging station will be located on Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Hanoi. The total investment cost of the project is about 1.8 billion VND. The fast charging station has a total capacity of 100-120kW. The station area is about 30-35m2. The charging station includes 2 vertical charging cabinets, equipped with 2 charging ports with a capacity of 50-60kW/charging port.
According to information from this enterprise, the charging revenue is calculated based on the estimated charging output and the expected charging unit price is divided into 3 unit prices according to the off-peak, normal and peak hours. In which, the average charging unit price is expected to be about 3,858 VND/kWh, equivalent to the charging station operated by VinFast and lower than some other third-party units. Initially, PV Power will build a pilot charging station, then there will be a basis for developing an investment plan to install and expand the charging station system.
"A sweet cake" waiting to be exploited
Petroleum companies have also begun to coordinate with other units to build electric vehicle charging stations.
In the face of the development trend of electric vehicles, the Vietnamese Government is currently concretizing it with important policies. This is very important to attract investors to the "sweet cake" of developing electric vehicle charging stations.
On July 22, 2022, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 876/QD-TTg approving the Action Program on green energy conversion, reducing carbon and methane emissions in the transport sector (Green Energy Conversion Action Program).
Accordingly, the Government aims to develop a green transport system towards the goal of net greenhouse gas emissions of "0" by 2050. To realize this goal, the Government has set a roadmap for green energy conversion for roads, railways, inland waterways, maritime, aviation and urban transport.
Specifically, the goal of green energy conversion in the road sector in phase 1 (2022-2030) is to promote the production, assembly, import and conversion of electric road motor vehicles; expand the blending and use of 100% E5 gasoline for road motor vehicles; develop electric charging infrastructure to meet the needs of people and businesses; encourage new and existing bus stations and rest stops to convert to green criteria.
Most recently, according to Decree 95 detailing the Housing Law, from August 1, apartment buildings are divided into three categories in order of categories 1, 2 and 3. Apartments will be ranked based on 8 mandatory criteria, including location, amenities, parking, lobby - corridor, elevator, power supply, apartments and a group of criteria according to construction standards.
In particular, the highest-class apartment building (class 1) must meet additional conditions on distance to parks or entertainment areas. At the same time, within the premises of this class apartment building, there must be an educational or sports medical service area, a separate freight elevator, etc. Regarding parking, every two apartments in a class 1 project must have at least a car parking space (slot) with a standard area of 25m2 (calculated according to the standards of the Ministry of Construction in 2021). In particular, the highest-class apartment building must have a charging station for electric vehicles.
In Circular 09/2024, which has just been issued by the Ministry of Transport, it will take effect from October 5, 2024. For rest stops that have been announced to be put into operation before the effective date of this Circular, the repair and upgrading of construction items must be completed to ensure that they meet the requirements of this Regulation before January 1, 2027. This is a new regulation that is binding on rest stops with an area of 5,000 m2 or more and is the content that concretizes the goal of converting to green energy according to Decision No. 876 of the Prime Minister.
According to the report on the domestic electric car market index of the Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI), with a market of about 100 million people, currently, the car ownership rate in Vietnam is only at 23 cars/1,000 people, this figure is only 1/10 of Thailand and 1/20 of Malaysia.
It is forecasted that by 2025, the country's automobile demand will be around 800,000 - 900,000 vehicles and by 2030 around 1.5 - 1.8 million vehicles
Meanwhile, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) forecasts that by 2028 Vietnam will reach the milestone of 1 million electric vehicles and around 3.5 million electric vehicles by 2040.
It can be seen that the Vietnamese electric vehicle charging station market will have great potential waiting to be exploited in the coming time. Experts assess that this is also an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to exploit this market because not many foreign units have jumped into this land. Besides, the race will also be very fierce, requiring enterprises to have careful calculations when investing in a new field in a new market in the first steps.
According to vneconomy.vn