China has a charging socket for three plug-in vehicles (BEV + PHEV)
- In China, 3.3 million NEVs (New Energy Vehicles = BEV + PHEV + FCEVs) were sold in 2021. The fleet of NEVs therefore reached nearly 8 million units. For 2022, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) had forecast that 5 million NEVs will be sold in 2022. In view of the first 8 months of the year (3.7 million NEVs including 2.9 million BEVs and 816,000 PHEVs), this objective will be well achieved, if not exceeded.
- The increase in NEVs must be accompanied by an increase in the number of infrastructure of private and public chargers and battery exchange stations (swapping). In 2021, the number of charging sockets on Chinese territory is already around 2.6 million (including nearly 1.15 million public sockets), which means that one in three NEVs in China already has a charging socket, while the number of swapping stations has probably exceeded one thousand units.
- The Chinese carmaker NIO has the largest network of swapping stations to date with 780 stations (as of January 2022), because its business model is based on this principle. NIO wishes to set up in Europe, a first station being operational in Oslo, Norway.
Other Chinese automakers are now trying to catch up. Geely entered into a partnership in 2021 with Lifan Technology (which is owned by Geely) to develop a battery-powered vehicle and set up an infrastructure of swapping stations for it. Changan, for its part, aims to commission 140 swapping stations by the end of 2022 and 200 stations by the end of 2023.
Other Chinese automakers are now trying to catch up. Geely entered into a partnership in 2021 with Lifan Technology (which is owned by Geely) to develop a battery-powered vehicle and set up an infrastructure of swapping stations for it. Changan, for its part, aims to commission 140 swapping stations by the end of 2022 and 200 stations by the end of 2023.
- Swapping stations are still a niche, even in a high-growth Chinese market. Nevertheless, the projects are developing, because the NEV market is growing very rapidly (the NEV market has more than doubled in 1 year).
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