In recent years, driven by the camping economy, the outdoor power stations supply industry has developed rapidly. However, with the advent of the post pandemic era, consumer demand has changed, and the outdoor power market has also shown new characteristics.
1. The outdoor power stations supply market is booming with the help of the East Wind
In the 14th Five Year Plan, the country pointed out the need to vigorously develop clean energy. Outdoor power stations supply, as a typical clean energy product, is increasingly receiving attention from all sectors of society.
The reporter learned that Outdoor power stations supply, as a rapidly developing product category in recent years, is a small energy storage device that can replace traditional small fuel generators and has built-in lithium-ion batteries.
In the past, outdoor emergency power was mainly provided by small fuel generators, but fuel generators had problems such as high noise, complex operation, and environmental pollution. With the development of the industry, flexible, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly outdoor mobile power sources are gradually replacing them, becoming a new choice for consumers to use electricity for outdoor activities. In the current era of “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality”, outdoor power stations has become a typical example of clean electricity for outdoor life, opening up various application scenarios such as outdoor work, outdoor life, home emergency, and disaster relief. Among them, outdoor life and leisure have become the most representative scenario. When discussing the application prospects of outdoor power stations sources, PR Liu Yue from Zhenghao China stated that outdoor camping accounts for 70% to 80% of many domestic application scenarios.
The reporter saw from the “2022-2027 Investment Outlook Analysis and Supply and Demand Pattern Research Forecast Report on the Field Camping Tent Market” released by the Zhongyan Puhua Industry Research Institute that it is expected that the core market size of China’s camping economy will increase to 248.32 billion yuan by 2025, which can drive the market size to reach 144.028 billion yuan. With the continuous expansion of camping and related industries in China, the outdoor power stations industry has also entered the fast lane of development.
It is worth noting that the increase in user demand has also attracted more corporate capital to bet, and upstream and downstream enterprises of outdoor power stations have entered the market one after another. “The track has been very hot in the past two years, and companies that used to focus on the B-end have also started to produce C-end products,” said a staff member from Zhenghao. Numerous brands have brought more intense competition to the outdoor power stations market, while also driving the development of market products towards higher quality and diversification to meet the personalized needs of consumers.
2. The “on-demand” function of outdoor power stations supply is becoming increasingly perfect
According to Quantuo data, the portable energy storage market has maintained a growth rate of over 100% since 2017. In 2022, the global shipment of portable energy storage increased to 6.567 million units, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%. It is expected that the global shipment of portable energy storage will reach 8.552 million units by 2023, with a market size of 63.62 billion yuan.
The reporter saw that compared to the capacity war dominated by “big” in the outdoor energy storage market in recent years, new outdoor battery products are now starting to comprehensively “open up” around the real pain points of consumers – hard core waterproofing, intelligent adjustment of electrical power, fast charging, leather durability, etc. The reporter noticed that in late August this year, Voltoffer’s first series of products, the Energy Storage Power Cube, achieved a product design that can expand up to 5 kWh of electricity through modular direct insertion expansion, creating a reliable and flexible energy storage power product for both personal and home scenarios.
“With the precipitation and development of products in recent years, user needs and industry demands have returned to the most essential aspects of products, and more attention will be paid to the stability, safety, convenience, and usability of the product’s power supply.” Voltoffer personnel said in an interview with reporters.
The reporter learned that in recent years, the energy storage power supply industry has developed rapidly, and products with different designs, powers, capacities, and functions have emerged one after another. However, as a tool for energy storage and providing electricity support for consumers in their daily lives, the reliability and practicality of its products are still the two most core points of concern for energy storage power source users. Industry insiders point out that “in terms of reliability, products are placed in harsh environments such as humidity, high temperature, bumps, and salt spray, ensuring the stability of product quality and safety; while in terms of practicality, it can be summarized as meeting usage needs while also considering flexibility and convenience.”
According to relevant practitioners, before 2019, the charging time for all outdoor power stations sources was 5-10 hours or even longer. To this day, a power supply equivalent to 50 times the battery of a mobile phone can be fully charged in just about an hour. But this also brings about the continuous increase in product volume and weight under large capacity. It is worth noting that for different scenarios of electricity demand, the modular design of some products meets the personalized needs of consumers. For example, the “1 kWh” power battery pack product under Voltoffer allows users to purchase 1-5 batteries as needed to obtain the corresponding 1-5kWh of electricity. The split outdoor power stations supply product has also greatly improved its portability.
3. Outdoor power stations sources have great potential and positive prospects
The reporter saw that with the advent of the post pandemic era, there has been an increase in choices such as long-distance and outbound travel, and consumers’ enthusiasm for close range camping has cooled down. The outdoor power stations supply market, which has experienced strong development, has also shown a new development trend. Yuan Shuai, Executive Director of the High Quality Development Promotion Project for Specialized and Innovative Enterprises, told our reporter that when the growth rate of the camping economy slows down, the outdoor power stations supply market may be affected to some extent, but there is still significant demand. “Compared to last year’s sales of related products, there are indeed signs of a slowdown this year. However, with the popularization of mobile energy storage products and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, the number of users who truly have demand for mobile energy storage products is still gradually increasing.” Voltcoffer employees told reporters.
The reporter learned from the interview that after several years of development, domestic consumers have gained a better understanding of outdoor culture. However, compared to more mature markets abroad, the penetration rate of outdoor power station products among domestic consumers is only 1% -3%, and there is still great potential for demand in the future.
However, it is worth noting that behind the enormous potential, there are also growth pains in the industry – behind the urgent need to improve standards, the problem of disorderly competition in the industry is gradually becoming prominent. Huabao Xinneng once stated in its prospectus that before the domestic industry standards were officially introduced, there were some manufacturers producing and selling portable energy storage products with quality defects and safety hazards, which would reduce consumer recognition of portable energy storage products and have a negative impact on the overall development of the industry in the future.
It is gratifying that while leading enterprises in the industry are playing a leading role and creating higher quality products, the country has also provided stronger policy support for the outdoor power station supply industry. On August 1, 2023, the new national standard “Technical Specification for Portable Lithium ion Battery Energy Storage Power Supply” was officially implemented, which regulates the identification, performance, safety, environmental adaptability, and other aspects of lithium-ion battery energy storage power supply.
Experts pointed out that the introduction of the new national standard has played a positive role in promoting the quality supervision and planning development of industry products. On the other hand, at present, consumers’ understanding of outdoor power station products is mostly limited to camping scenarios. How to incorporate more consumers into other application scenarios of outdoor power stations in the future is a question that industry enterprises should actively consider.