State Grid of China has completed the installation of 50 fast-charging stations on a 1260 Km stretch at the Beijing-Shanghai road.
The network provides one station at every 25km, which can be accessed by Chinese manufactured vehicles including BAIC Motor and BYD; BYD’s joint venture with Daimler of Germany; and Dongfeng-Nissan.
By 2020, State Grid plans extending the expressway to another 19,000km.
Drivers have to charge their cars six or seven times during the 1,200-kilometer journey and each charge take about 30 minutes.
The route will be China’s first electric vehicle fast charge services highway.
Upon advanced level, the utility will build a network platform for cross- electric cars, which can be operated through internet access and charge card payment.
According to September 2014 estimates there were only 70,000 EVs on China. Beijing intends to increase this number to 5m by 2020.
Chinese government is taking rigorous action to curb air pollution in the nation as part of recently concluded talk on climate issues.
The country is adapting electric vehicles in an extensive scale.
The authorities have initiated the movement by rolling out such charging facilities across the country.
However, Tesla will not benefit from this Beijing-Shanghai network due to the lack of charging infrastructure.
Tesla is hoping to build a nationwide network of solar-powered charging stations.
Tesla is tying up with China Unicom to equip 400 of its telecom retail outlets with charging stations.
At the same time, BMW has built a pilot charging network for its i8 and i3 electric vehicles in Shanghai.
Sabeena Wahid
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