The charging pile manufacturing industry is highly competitive, and overseas certifications are stringent
• In the midstream sector, players are mainly divided into two categories: charging pile equipment and construction. On the equipment side, this primarily includes manufacturers of DC charging equipment, AC charging equipment, and equipment such as wireless charging equipment, battery swapping equipment, and on-board chargers. On the construction side, it mainly involves charging station EPC projects. The midstream ev charging pile manufacturing industry is highly competitive, with over 300 suppliers currently operating in China.
• Charging piles exported to Europe and the United States typically require CE certification, or UL, FCC, or ETL certification. The EU requires CE certification, which has a shorter processing time; the US requires UL certification, which has a longer processing time.
- Electric vehicle charging piles exported to EU countries must undergo CE certification under the LVD + EMC directives. This is a mandatory requirement under EU law. CE certification primarily assesses product safety, typically including electrical and mechanical safety. LVD directive CE testing for charging piles includes LVD insulation, LVD high voltage, LVD residual current, and LVD grounding. The EMC directive requires testing according to appropriate safety standards, indicating that the equipment complies with the EU Declaration of Conformity EMC Directive 2014/30/EU, and demonstrating that the equipment has passed EU safety standard testing by listing these standards and report numbers in the documentation.
- Electric car charging piles exported to the United States typically require UL, FCC, or ETL certification. UL certification is short for Underwriters Laboratories certification, the most authoritative and largest private organization in the world engaged in safety testing and certification. UL certification is non-mandatory and primarily tests and certifies product safety performance; its scope does not include EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) characteristics. FCC certification is mandatory EMC certification in the United States; electronic and electrical products sold in the US require FCC certification. ETL certification is a safety certification mark required for export to the US and Canada, indicating that the product has passed accreditation testing by the US NRTL and/or the Canadian SCC, and has equivalent validity to UL or CSA marks.
CE Certification Testing Contents for Electric Car Charging Stations
| Commands | Test Items | Test Content |
| LVD Commands | LVD Insulation | Necessary insulation tests were performed on the installed system to prevent leakage current in the equipment. |
| LVD High Voltage | The resistance of all accessible materials on the equipment was tested under normal conditions. | |
| LVD Residual Current | Leakage current due to high grounding resistance or contact with the grounding cable was checked. | |
| LVD Connection | Soil continuity tests were performed between the PE conductor and accessible metal parts. | |
| EMC Commands | EMC Testing | Testing was conducted according to appropriate safety testing standards, indicating that the equipment complies with EU Declaration of Conformity EMC Directive 2014/30/EU, and this is demonstrated by listing these standards and report numbers in the documentation. |
Introduction to US EV Charging Station Certification Marks
| Certification Marks | Certification Content |
| UL Certification | Non-mandatory certification primarily involves testing and certification of product safety performance, aiming to determine the potential and extent of harm to life and property posed by various materials, devices, products, equipment, and buildings. |
| FCC Certification | EMC mandatory certification mainly targets electronic and electrical products in the 9K-3000GHz frequency range, addressing radio interference issues related to radio and communications. Electronic and electrical products sold in the United States require FCC certification. |
| ETL Certification | ETL certification is a safety certification mark required for export to the United States and Canada. The ETL mark is recognized as having equivalent validity to the UL or CSA mark and complies with relevant safety standards. |
Combination of multiple models, high barriers to entry
• Based on investment and management methods, the business models of ev charging pile network operators can be broadly categorized into three types: operator-led, automaker-led/cooperative, and third-party charging service platform-led. The operator-led model, represented by various CPOs (Contract Owners), focuses on operating its own assets and providing hardware and software ev charging solutions. Operators can be further subdivided by entity and service provider, including government/power grid companies, petrochemical energy companies, vehicle alliances, and software operators. The automaker-led/cooperative model, represented by Tesla, provides charging services to its own car owners. The third-party charging service platform-led model, represented by companies like Chargepoint, connects users and asset-based charging operators through third-party charging networks.
• Under the operator-led model, the operator completes the investment, construction, operation, and maintenance of ev charging stations, and provides charging services to users. This model highly integrates upstream and downstream resources in the industry chain, collaboratively participating in charging technology R&D and equipment manufacturing. It requires significant upfront investment in infrastructure such as sites and ev charging hub, making it a capital-intensive operation that demands strong financial resources and comprehensive operational capabilities. Profitability depends on the utilization rate of individual ev charging ports and charging service fees.
• Automaker-led operation models are divided into self-built charging stations and cooperative charging station construction. The self-built model’s profit comes only from the electricity price difference and service fees, and its customer base is limited to the automaker’s existing customers. Charging station utilization is low, making it difficult to generate profit. This model is more suitable for automakers with a large customer base and stable core businesses. In the cooperative charging station construction model, automakers partner with charging operators to build stations, with the automaker providing the customer base and the charging operator providing energy supply and technology, achieving a win-win situation.
• Under the third-party charging service platform model, the service platform generally does not directly participate in the investment and construction of charging stations. Instead, it leverages its strong resource integration capabilities to connect charging stations from different charging operators to its platform. Using big data and resource integration and allocation technologies, it connects charging stations from different operators, improving the utilization rate of individual charging stations. Through “online + offline” service innovation, it provides C-end users with one-stop charging services including charging, after-sales service, and lifestyle services, improving the user charging experience. Simultaneously, third-party charging service providers provide B-end operators with refined online operation services and offline maintenance services, promoting the improvement of charging service quality and efficiency. The profit model mainly comes from the service fee shared by charging operators and some value-added service fees.
Future Trends – Innovation and Upgrading of Operating Models
• Split-type charging piles are gradually replacing integrated charging stations. For the same charging scenario, Electric Vehicle charging Stations can flexibly utilize modules, improving power utilization and turnaround time, further enhancing system utilization.
• Flexible charging piles rely on “power fusion + dynamic allocation” to solve the problem of fixed power for single charging stations, adapting to differentiated charging needs.
• Integrated photovoltaic, energy storage, and charging systems can effectively mitigate the impact of large-scale charging pile power consumption on local power grids. In the future, they will show a trend towards multi-functional complexes integrating “substations + charging stations + data center stations + DC distribution stations + photovoltaic stations + energy storage stations + refueling + gas filling + battery swapping.” “Photovoltaic-energy storage-charging-testing” is a new type of new energy vehicle charging service facility that integrates photovoltaic, energy storage, fast charging, and battery testing equipment. During charging, users can achieve functions such as battery testing, license plate recognition, bidirectional charging/discharging (V2G), and islanded operation of the charging station. Furthermore, energy storage systems can utilize off-peak electricity prices at night for energy storage, and during peak charging periods, they can supply power to charging stations together with grid power to meet peak demand, achieving peak shaving and valley filling. Even during grid outages, the energy storage system can still provide charging services to users. This can improve the profitability of charging operators through three profit models: self-consumption of generated electricity and grid connection of surplus electricity to reduce electricity costs; peak-valley price arbitrage; and capacity-based electricity fee management.
• Large-scale electric vehicles under V2G can provide power ranging from MW to GW, with hourly continuous discharge time and second-level response speed, combining the advantages of both energy-type and power-type energy storage, and have broad application prospects.
Advantages and challenges of integrated photovoltaic, energy storage and charging stations
| Advantages | Contributes to achieving carbon neutrality | Uses renewable energy, is environmentally friendly, and has zero carbon emissions |
| Reduce grid impact | Currently, a single DC fast charging station has a power output of over 60kW. The operation of one DC fast charging station is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of 20-30 households, which has a significant impact on the power grid. Using an integrated photovoltaic-storage-charging station allows energy to be drawn from the energy storage battery. The use of the energy storage battery helps with peak shaving and valley filling for the power grid, thus reducing the impact on the grid. | |
| Maximize battery lifecycle value | Retired power batteries can be used as energy storage batteries in the photovoltaic-storage-charging station, achieving tiered utilization and effectively solving the problem of new energy vehicle battery recycling. | |
| Challenges | High initial construction costs | It is estimated that the investment payback period for a 6-car charging station is approximately 5-6 years. |
| Safety issues | Fire hazards, etc. |
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Post time: Dec-16-2025
