China’s Guangdong province has more EV chargers than the entire United States

GUANGZHOU – Range anxiety is a thing of the past for electric vehicle owners in Guangdong, China.

Hundreds of thousands of public charging points (equivalent to EVs equivalent to petrol pumps) have been built in the coastal areas bordering Hong Kong over the past few years. With 345,126 public chargers and 19,116 charging stations at the end of September, Guangdong province has China’s largest EV charging network, more than double that of a year ago, according to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance. increase. That’s about three times as many public chargers across the United States, according to Bloomberg NEF data.

As they push to electrify their vehicles, governments around the world are looking to rapidly deploy and expand public charging infrastructures to adequately service new battery-powered vehicles. President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Act, which has spent $5 billion (SGD7 billion) to build his nationwide network of EV charging ports along major US travel routes, has allowed Germany to cut its charging industry. He has spent or pledged $6.4 billion to help.

However, both the United States and Europe are well behind China in building networks. By the end of 2021, there will be 112,900 public chargers deployed across the United States and 442,000 in Europe, compared with 1.15 million in China, according to Bloomberg NEF analysis.

The gap is only widening. In just the last 12 months, China has added her 592,000 public chargers. This exceeds the total number the Biden administration wants by 2030. The government plans to build enough charging stations for 20 million electric vehicles by 2025, according to his January document from the National Development Agency. Reform Commission and nine other her ministries.

These charging pylons have been built by third-party utility companies, state-owned power companies (including two of China’s State Grid Corp. and China Southern Power Grid), and EV automakers such as Tesla Inc. and China’s Nio Inc. is installed. Tesla operates more than 8,700 of his supercharger stalls in 370 cities in China. This represents about a quarter of the global Supercharger network.

China’s efforts to build green infrastructure are paying off. Domestic demand for cleaner cars now significantly exceeds demand in Europe and the United States. New energy vehicles account for a quarter of his new car purchases in China, and NEV sales are expected to hit a record 6 million units this year.

In Guangdong, ubiquitous charging is also driving electric vehicle ownership. According to the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, his EV sales increased 151% in the first half of this year. According to the National Monitoring and Management Platform for New Energy Vehicles, the state now has more than 1.4 million electric vehicles, the highest share in the country.

“More chargers mean less range anxiety, so EV sales will increase,” said David Zhang, an automotive analyst and director of the Jiangxi New Energy Technology Research Institute. increase. “Having so many chargers is definitely a breakthrough, but you have to remember that charging takes much longer than refilling a gas tank. ”

The Guangdong provincial government is also focusing on EV production. Currently, one-eighth of his electric vehicles sold in China are manufactured in Guangdong. From January to July, local EV production surged to more than double his previous year. Strong production capacity has a ripple effect, improving customer experience and after-sales service, and even driving down prices within the state.

Yoyo Gu, a 40-year-old housewife from Guangdong province, swapped her Dongfeng Citroen C4 internal combustion sedan for a GAC ​​AION V Plus electric SUV earlier this year as part of a local subsidy program to boost EV adoption. .

“We deducted about 8,000 yuan from the bill,” Mr. Gu said. This is in addition to his EV purchase tax exemption, which the government has extended until the end of 2023.

For the first few months, she charged her SUV overnight at a public charging station in her neighborhood, eventually installing a dedicated charging outlet in her apartment complex’s parking lot.

“When my friends talk about buying an electric car, no one worries about charging anymore,” Gu said. “In the parking lot under our apartment he added five new chargers in the last two months. Easy to find on the road.” Bloomberg