BEIJING -- As in other countries, high cost and low range are big hurdles to the proliferation of electric vehicles in China.
But the infrastructure challenges are especially acute here because few EV drivers have the facilities to plug in at home.
Instead, a marketplace for app-driven charging stations run by ambitious startup companies is springing up.
We visited one station last week at Peking University in Beijing that is operated by Beifang Jingaung Inc., known locally as CDX.
Today, the company has about 120 stations in China -- 70 in Beijing and 50 in Shanghai, said co-founder Bill Wang.
This month, CDX plans to open another 180, mostly in Beijing, and by the end of 2016, it aims to have 6,000 up and running.
Overall, China had some 50,000 EV charging stations at the end of 2015. The capital city had about 5,000.
Many are publicly operated, but others are set up by companies such as CDX. Drivers download a mobile phone app and sign up to use the company’s stations.
The app tells drivers where the nearest charging stations are and allows them to reserve a spot, blocking out other cars until the drivers arrive and unlock it, again through the app.
The drivers then pay CDX; CDX keeps a service fee as its slice and then pays the power company for the electricity.
We’re not talking big sums of money.
In Beijing, CDX’s service fee amounts to just 1 yuan (15 cents) per kilowatt-hour of charging. When a subcompact BAIC EV150, a China-brand EV popular on the Peking University campus, plugs in for an hour, it soaks up about 5 kilowatt-hours of charge.
That nets CDX a whopping 5 yuan (77 cents).
But two things may work in CDX’s favor.
One is scale. Multiply those charging fees out across the 6,000 stations it wants to build, and the trickle starts to add up.
The other is an oft-captive customer base.
Consumer preference
Drivers interviewed by Automotive News at the university said they are aware of other charging stations and other charging companies, but they habitually charge at the same campus station daily.
The drivers live less than 6 miles away and mostly shuttle back and forth to work.
They rarely venture farther afield, and they are CDX regulars.
Little wonder Nissan CEO and EV champion Carlos Ghosn wants to introduce a low-cost, low-performance electric car to China. Something below the Leaf that competes with local brands.
No-frills suit many Chinese EV drivers just fine.
Many buy an EV just to duck license plate restrictions. And because the typical commute in China’s big cities is quite short, they can afford to save by skimping on a big battery.
As long as companies such as CDX rapidly ramp up those charging stations, low-cost, low-performance may be a winning formula.
