7,800 charging stations needed, total investment of 2.2 billion USD
At the workshop "Promoting energy transition and investment policy mechanisms for charging station infrastructure in Vietnam" organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Vietnam Road Administration (Ministry of Transport) on March 13 in Hanoi, many experts said that the possibility of attracting private investment in this field is very feasible.
According to experts, Vietnam has set a goal that by 2050, all road vehicles and construction motorbikes will switch to using electricity and green energy. In this process, promoting the development of charging station infrastructure is an inseparable factor.
Vinfast charging station system.
However, as of 2021, only VinFast owns 150,000 charging ports installed in 63 provinces and cities nationwide.
According to the road infrastructure development plan, by 2050, Vietnam will build more than 9,000km of highways, nearly 8 times the current number. The highways will have rest stops and these are places where electric vehicle charging stations can be located.
According to GTVT, from 2018 to the end of 2022, the country had 7,780 electric cars. In the first 8 months of 2023 alone, this number increased by 12,285 units, mainly Vinfast cars.
In addition, a series of domestic automobile manufacturers and assemblers such as: TMT Motor, THACO, TC Motor and foreign car manufacturers such as OMODA, Wuling, Haima, Haval, Zhidou, Lynk & Co... are preparing to launch the first electric vehicle products in Vietnam.
With current electric vehicle technology, electric vehicle batteries usually allow the vehicle to travel about 180-300km/charge. If you want to travel long distances, you definitely need dense charging stations so you can charge while driving.
Therefore, according to experts, the demand for charging stations in Vietnam is very high and is a good opportunity for domestic investors to exploit.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen The Trong, a financial expert who has participated in many transportation projects, assessed that the ability to attract private investment in this field is very feasible.
With 39 rest stops along the entire North-South expressway in the east and assuming that by 2050 all vehicles in circulation will be electric vehicles, Mr. Trong's research team estimates the investment need to be about 7,800 charging points, an average of about 200 charging points/rest stop.
Based on the 2024 investment rate, about 2.2 billion USD will be needed for the 2025-2050 period.
Mr. Nguyen The Trong, financial expert, presented research at the workshop.
With an estimated cost of about 30 minutes per charge and about 80% battery, the cost consumers need to pay is about 75 thousand VND.
This charging fee is quite similar to international practice. The affordability of electric vehicle owners is better than that of gasoline vehicles due to better life-cycle and operating costs of electric vehicles.
"If the profit margin is 4% higher than the bank interest rate, in the long term, charging station investors can recover their capital and make a profit," said Mr. Trong.
This expert believes that to attract private investment in developing charging station infrastructure, the most important thing is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles. At the same time, the private sector needs to be allowed to charge charging service fees to recover capital.
He recommended that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport coordinate to research and regulate charging service fees, thereby ensuring reasonable costs for consumers.
In addition, there should be policies to adjust charging prices by the hour. Grid planning should be planned in accordance with the demand for electric vehicle charging to ensure sufficient capacity.
For highway rest stops without access to the high voltage grid, consideration should be given to installing additional solar power systems.
Non-standard fast charging stations can be harmful
Sharing about the initial study assessing the potential impact of charging stations on the power grid along the eastern North-South Expressway, Mr. Nguyen Bao Huy (Hanoi University of Science and Technology) said that based on the expressway planning, forecasting the scale of electric vehicles and forecasting future traffic volume, the research team has forecasted the total demand for electric vehicle charging on the eastern North-South Expressway axis.
Specifically, this figure is 400 MW in 2030, 4,671 MW in 2040 and 7,851 MW in 2050.
The research team believes that to meet the demand, it is necessary to achieve a ratio of 10 electric vehicles/charger and 2.4 kW/electric vehicle, with a capacity of about 0.46-29.9% of the total grid. Accordingly, at the charging stations at highway rest stops alone, it is necessary to invest in chargers from fast (250 kW capacity) to super fast (350 kW).
Mr. Huy commented: "Basically, if developed in accordance with the road planning and electricity planning 8, charging stations will not put much pressure on the power supply capacity of the expressway areas. However, the selection of charging station technology requires an assessment of the impact on the power grid."
Because fast charging stations can cause harmonics (unwanted noise that directly affects power quality), voltage and frequency fluctuations, making the grid unstable. This can affect high-tech manufacturing plants such as chips and semiconductors that use the same grid.
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