According to the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily on December 25 (Reporter Tang Zhixiao), it was recently revealed on Lei Jun's official Weibo that Xiaomi Autos has reached a Charging Station sharing cooperation with NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng.

It is reported that XIAOMI-W will share some charging station resources with NIO, XPeng, and LI Auto, specifically including over 14,000 NIO Charging Stations, more than 9,000 XPeng Charging Stations, and over 6,000 LI Auto Charging Stations on the XIAOMI-W charging map.

Through this collaboration, users of XIAOMI-W can view real-time dynamic data of charging stations from various brands on the charging map and use the XIAOMI-W app to scan for charging. Among them, XPeng Charging Stations support plug-and-charge services, while LI Auto Charging Stations only support scanning for charging via the XIAOMI-W app for some locations.

According to reporters from the Star Daily, several new energy vehicle companies, including 'NIO, XPeng, and LI Auto', have chosen to share self-operated Charging Stations and will also provide special preferential policies for their own car owners. Although the domestic charging service market is gradually maturing and improving, various new energy vehicle companies are still actively building their own charging networks.

Shared charging network, vehicle companies 'tear down walls'.

Earlier at the XIAOMI-W SU7 technology launch event, Chairman Lei Jun announced that XIAOMI-W will use 600kW liquid-cooled supercharging technology to build its own supercharging network, with the first phase planned to gradually advance in Peking, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and other cities.

Subsequently, during a live test, Lei Jun stated that although XIAOMI-W has already established some charging stations, there are currently no plans for large-scale construction; the number of public charging stations for buses in the country is already sufficient, and XIAOMI-W has improved hundreds of issues through tests of 0.07 million public charging stations.

Some XIAOMI-W car owners reported that they have previously used the NIO 500kW Charging Stations for charging. “My model is the standard version on a 400V platform, and the peak charging power on the NIO Charging Station is close to 190kW, taking about 28 minutes to charge from 15% to 90%. I have also used Charging Stations from other brands, and I generally haven't encountered compatibility issues.”

Lei Jun stated: “XIAOMI-W's current primary task is to focus on automobile manufacturing, aiming to make the XIAOMI SU7 the electric vehicle with the best compatibility and convenience with public Charging Stations.”

In an interview with The Star Daily, Zhi Peiyuan, Vice Chairman of the Investment Professional Committee of the China Investment Association, stated: “Connecting to the ‘Wei Xia Li’ charging network for XIAOMI-W Autos means instant network expansion, immediately gaining access to a wide range of Charging Station facilities, avoiding lengthy Infrastructure cycles, and ensuring that quality support is available right from the product launch. Lean Operation effectively avoids repeated investment risks, focuses on core Business innovation, streamlines cost structures, and ensures optimal resource allocation.”

It is reported that several New energy vehicle enterprises have now opened their self-operated Charging Station operations to the outside.

In April last year, Tesla announced the official opening of Charging Stations in China for certain non-Tesla brand Electric Vehicles as a pilot program, including 10 Supercharging Stations and over 170 Destination Charging Stations. By this year, the number of Supercharging Stations available for sharing by Tesla has increased to over 450, with Destination Charging Stations rising to over 350, covering more than 200 cities and regions.

NIO has reached interconnectivity cooperation with over 10 automotive brands including Xpeng, Galaxy, Lynk & Co, ZEEKR, Polestar, Smart, Extreme, Deep Blue, Cadillac, Buick, and others, connecting to over 1.02 million third-party Charging Stations.

Not only new energy brands, but traditional manufacturers are also breaking down barriers. On November 30 last year, Mercedes-Benz (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and Brilliance BMW Automotive Ltd. announced the signing of a cooperation agreement to establish a joint venture in China with a 50:50 shareholding, which will operate a publicly accessible Supercharging network in the Chinese market, with the first Charging Stations planned to operate in key new energy cities starting in 2024. The joint venture plans to build at least 1,000 Supercharging Stations and approximately 7,000 Supercharging piles in China by the end of 2026.

According to a Research Report from Kaiyuan Securities, most car manufacturers currently choose to open their self-built Charging Stations to owners of other brands, though the extent of openness varies. Each car manufacturer provides special discount policies for its own owners, which manifest mainly in the following forms: offering charging discount packages, limited-time free charging at certain stations, points redeeming charging fees, waiving parking fees, and free charging within limits. Additionally, Tesla charges extra charging fees for non-Tesla vehicles.

However, there are also views that sharing Charging Stations with other brands, while it can enhance the utilization rate of Charging Stations and shorten the investment recovery period, comes with the risk of declining user experience once the Charging Stations become busy.

NIO's co-founder and president Qin Lihong has also stated that as NIO's user base increases, the company is considering how to find a better balance between opening up to the public and prioritizing NIO users, especially when facing vehicles that experience particularly slow charging speeds due to technical platform reasons. NIO will impose some restrictions via the cloud to ensure that more users can conveniently charge their vehicles.

Self-operated Charging Stations remain the mainstream choice.

According to the National Energy Administration, by the end of November 2024, China has built a total of 12.352 million Charging Stations, a year-on-year increase of 50%. The top five are TELD, Star Charging, Yun Quick Charge, Xiaoju Charging, and State Grid.

With the rapid development of the Electric Vehicles industry, the Charging Service Market, which has entered the market promotion stage, is gradually maturing and improving, significantly enhancing the convenience of charging services. Therefore, some believe that self-built Charging Stations are no longer a necessity for XIAOMI-W Autos.

Feng Zhenghang, General Manager of Guangzhou Zhandi Technology Co., Ltd., stated in an interview with the Star Daily: "Building a self-operated Charging Network can provide XIAOMI-W Autos with more control and flexibility, and also customize charging solutions based on XIAOMI-W Autos' specific needs, enhancing the competitiveness of brand-specific services. Therefore, XIAOMI-W Autos is likely to adopt a dual-track strategy of collaboration and self-built Charging Network to achieve more comprehensive market coverage and better user experience."

Currently, Electric Vehicle companies across the country have differing progress in the construction layout of the national Charging Station network, and recently, more Electric Vehicle companies have joined in building their own Charging Station systems.

According to the latest data released by various companies, as one of the earliest promoters of China's Charging Network construction and the company with the most Charging Stations, Tesla has launched over 2,700 Supercharging Stations and more than 11,500 Superchargers nationwide, including over 700 destination Charging Stations.

Recently, Tesla informed the Star Daily that the Energy Storage Super Factory in Shanghai has been completed in just seven months, and it is expected to be put into production in the first quarter of 2025, with a planned annual production of 100,000 commercial Energy Storage Battery Megapacks, with an Energy Storage scale of nearly 40 GWh.

Xiaopeng Autos has surpassed 1830 self-operated stations, with more than 9370 Charging Stations, covering over 420 cities; Li Auto has 1324 Charging Stations and 6718 Charging Stations; NIO has 2659 battery swap stations and 24092 Charging Stations; ZEEKR Energy has built 1100 Charging Stations, among which the total number of ultra-fast Charging Stations reaches 500, and the total number of Charging Stations exceeds 6000.

Recently announced self-built Charging Stations by automakers include Polestar, which has completed a total of 32 Charging Stations since launching its first batch of supercharging stations in June this year; Lantu built its first self-constructed supercharging station in September and currently has 12 stations online; and Starway launched its first batch of 7 supercharging stations in February this year.

A research report from Kaiyuan Securities points out that the different Charging Station Operating models among automakers reflect different strategic characteristics, but the core goal is to enhance vehicle sales: on one hand, self-built Charging Stations can be established in areas where charging facilities are relatively inadequate and opened to the public to establish a good brand image; on the other hand, charging rights can also be promoted as a selling point when selling new cars, for example, some models of ZEEKR allow consumers to enjoy free charging rights after purchasing the vehicle.