Need to speed up the completion of the system of standards and regulations

"Race" to develop electric vehicle charging stations

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 direction is to change consumer habits towards Net Zero, but from the consumer's perspective, without charging stations, it will certainly be difficult for companies 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.

Focusing on supporting, encouraging investment, and building charging stations will be key to accelerating the goal of converting vehicles using internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. Photo: Vinfast

Currently in Vietnam, a number of enterprises are manufacturing and assembling electric cars such as Vinfast with battery electric vehicles (BEV), Hyundai Thanh Cong with battery electric vehicles (BEV) and hybrid vehicles (HEV), Thaco with hybrid vehicles (HEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), TMT with small battery electric vehicles (mini-BEV).

According to the report of the Department of Industry (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in 2023, a total of 15,676 BEVs and 5,220 HEV/PHEVs will be sold in Vietnam, including 15,486 BEVs and 1,243 HEV/PHEVs manufactured and assembled domestically; 190 BEVs and 3,977 imported HEV/PHEVs.

Notably, in the first 6 months of 2024, a total of 17,536 BEVs were sold in Vietnam, including 17,482 domestically produced and assembled vehicles and 54 imported vehicles. At the same time, Vietnam produced and assembled 231 vehicles and imported 2,190 HEV/PHEV vehicles.

Although the number of electric charging stations is increasing significantly every year, additional solutions are needed to improve the quality of Vietnam's existing infrastructure.

In Vietnam, VinFast is the biggest name that owns a nationwide charging station system. VinFast is currently the largest system developer with about 150,000 charging ports in 63 provinces and cities. This electric vehicle developer also cooperates with Petrolimex and PV Oil to install charging stations at gas stations along highways and national highways.

In addition to VinFast, companies providing electric vehicle charging stations in Vietnam are divided into several groups to develop 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 and EverCharge. Next is the group providing home charging, companies such as EverEV, GreenCharge, Star Charge, Autel, etc. Although the number of electric charging stations is increasing significantly every year, it is necessary to continue to add solutions to improve the quality of Vietnam's existing infrastructure.

Recently, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Power Corporation (PV Power) signed a cooperation agreement with EN Technologies Inc. to research and develop a charging station system, aiming to become a reputable electric vehicle charging station supplier nationwide. The first pilot electric vehicle charging station will be located on Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Hanoi. The total investment cost of the project is about more than 1.8 billion VND.

“PV Power has identified investing in electric vehicle charging station infrastructure as a strategic step, in line with the company’s long-term development vision,” the unit announced. Initially, PV Power will build a pilot charging station, then have a basis for developing an investment plan to install and expand the charging station system.

The Government is determined, ministries and branches take action

Recently, the Government Office announced the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha at a meeting on policies for developing green vehicles and electric charging stations for green vehicles.

One of the tasks assigned by the Deputy Prime Minister to the Ministry of Industry and Trade is 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; including studying, proposing and assessing the impact of the electricity price support mechanism on electric charging stations serving green vehicles.

The Government also requested relevant ministries, branches and localities to review sectoral and provincial planning, supplement and have policies to invest in developing charging station infrastructure and power supply.

Regarding this content, the Ministry of Science and Technology has announced 8 Vietnamese standards (TCVN) related to charging stations for electric vehicles and 3 Vietnamese standards on sockets. In April 2024, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued a Circular amending and supplementing regulations on measurement for group 2 vehicles with the additional content of 'electric vehicle battery charging power measurement equipment'. However, the development and promulgation of regulations on national standards and national technical regulations on electric vehicle charging station systems, in the Vietnamese standard system, there is no Vietnamese standard for electric vehicle charging station systems.

On the side of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Mr. Pham Nguyen Hung - Director of the Department of Industry said that in the field of electric energy, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for developing and promulgating national technical regulations on safety. According to Decree No. 127/2007/ND-CP dated August 1, 2007 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Technical Standards and Regulations, as amended and supplemented, the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for electric vehicle charging stations is in the field of electric energy. Specifically, industrial technical safety (safety of pressure-resistant equipment, lifting equipment, safety of equipment with specific safety requirements for industrial sectors); electrical safety in the management and operation of electrical equipment; mining and oil and gas (except for equipment and means of exploration and exploitation of oil and gas at sea); safety in mechanical production, metallurgy, electricity, energy, oil and gas exploitation, mineral exploitation, chemicals (including pharmaceuticals); occupational safety and hygiene (except for machinery, equipment and materials with strict requirements on occupational safety).

Thus, for the electric energy sector as prescribed in Decree No. 78/2018/ND-CP, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for developing and promulgating technical regulations on safety in the above-mentioned electric energy sector, which do not include national technical regulations on electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging stations and electric vehicle power supply infrastructure.

Regarding the field of power supply infrastructure for charging stations, according to Mr. Bui Quoc Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Electricity and Renewable Energy (Ministry of Industry and Trade), it is necessary to have a power supply plan because the load for the charging station system is relatively large. In the plan, it is necessary to calculate the power supply demand, at the same time, the construction of plans related to charging stations is also related to land use issues under the authority of the Ministry of Construction.

Mr. Tran Viet Hoa - Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that in order to build a feasible system of regulations and standards for electric vehicle charging stations, it is necessary to agree on whether to build regulations or standards. Because if we decide to build regulations, we must strictly manage the design, installation and operation. “Regarding electric charging stations, we should follow the direction of building standards. In fact, technical standards are to provide solutions, knowledge and options for manufacturers. Therefore, in the context of technologies that are constantly changing very quickly, building standards will be more appropriate. Once regulations and standards have been built, there needs to be synchronization to easily apply to many different types of electric vehicles,” said Mr. Tran Viet Hoa.

To ensure consistency and synchronization in state management of charging stations/equipment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade recently worked with the Ministry of Science and Technology on standards and regulations for electric vehicle charging stations. Accordingly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested the Ministry of Science and Technology to soon develop and promulgate standards and regulations on design, installation and operation requirements for charging stations/equipment for electric vehicles, ensuring compliance with electric vehicle models circulating in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will urgently study, review and adjust the Power Plan VIII to supplement the power source for the installation of charging stations; study and develop a power supply plan for charging stations. Currently, if the trend of using electric vehicles increases, the amount of electricity consumption will be very large. Meanwhile, the new plan only calculates the amount of electricity consumption for production and consumption, but the use of electric vehicles has not been mentioned.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will research and issue technical standards and regulations on electrical systems and power supply plans for charging stations as soon as possible. The development of technical standards and regulations for electric charging stations will help car manufacturers around the world easily access the Vietnamese market. At the same time, the development of standards and regulations will be chaired by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and related ministries will coordinate.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/cuoc-dua-phat-trien-tram-sac-xe-dien-can-day-nhanh-viec-hoan-thien-he-thong-tieu-chuan-quy-chuan-349573.html