The Chinese auto industry is rapidly realizing "electricalization." According to reports, China has planned to install 500,000 public charging piles by the end of 2020.
Before this shift occurred, the pollution situation in major domestic cities was a major concern. According to World Health Organization estimates, air pollution kills as many as 1 million people each year in China. The goal of improving the air quality standard in 2035 needs to be systematically changed - the automotive industry is a potential breakthrough point.
According to statistics, in 2017 China's auto manufacturers produced a total of 680,000 all-electric vehicles, buses and trucks, which surpassed the sum of the rest of the world. China’s output has also grown faster than other countries in the world.
Buses and trucks are the most serious forms of vehicle exhaust pollution. Last year, China produced more than 200,000 fully electric commercial vehicles, which accounted for nearly 5% of total production. In 2017, Shenzhen, China, took the lead in implementing all-electricity transportation. Other cities are expected to follow up.
The plug-in electric vehicle (BEV) is the only true all-electric car, followed by a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) - basically just a hybrid car with a power cord. Although PHEVs dominated the plug-in market in the United States early and still accounted for nearly half of all plug-in vehicle sales in the United States, all-electric BEVs dominated China. They have an advantage in the field of commercial vehicles in China, and PHEVs are rapidly disappearing.
The challenge for BEV is cruising range. Without backup gasoline engines, BEVs can only use these cars when charging batteries. China is giving subsidies to domestic electric car manufacturers to allow them to shift to high-end markets to develop BEVs that can continue to travel longer distances.
For a moderately priced BEV, 100 miles (160 kilometers) of driving range can be achieved on a single charge. For large commercial operators who operate fixed routes, such as Shenzhen Bus, they can calculate in advance how much power is needed to transport the vehicle from the local to the destination before returning. It is a lot of trouble for ordinary individual drivers to operate.
This is where China is truly leading. It has taken the lead in the large-scale development of public charging piles and it has 214,000 units by the end of 2017. These charging stations are open to everyone and 232,000 private charging stations have been installed.
China plans to lay 500,000 public charging piles nationwide by 2020. Only China National Grid plans to provide 120,000, and today only 10,000. Cities like Shenzhen are testing public roadside toll piles in public parking spaces. Private operators provide more, and most of them cooperate with the national grid to manage the electricity load.
The charging pile model is the key to transitioning the entire region to the BEV-only automotive ecosystem. In the oil ecosystem, people can top up their tanks within minutes. It takes at least half an hour for the electric car to charge. Therefore, the EV ecosystem does not require a centralized station, but requires a widely distributed charging point, and people can insert charging points while parking.
Imagine the future of electric cars - restaurants and shopping centers have "advanced" parking spaces where you can plug in the power. Once enough space is available, many Chinese cities may be fully electric and completely disable the internal combustion engine. And this is likely to happen before 2035. China’s big cities will gradually become places where people can breathe freely.
However, according to JP Morgan's view, the success of electric vehicles in China is still not easy. Insufficient charging infrastructure, reduced government subsidies, and improvements in electric vehicle technology and battery costs will hinder the development of OEMs in the wave of electric vehicles.
Zhejiang Synmot Electrical Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.synmot-electrical.com