It's Electric: New Charging Stations Being Installed on Beijing-Shanghai Highway

Beijing's few electric vehicle drivers will soon have one less concern: it may very well be easier to drive and charge to Shanghai than within Beijing city limits.

State Grid Corporation, China's monopoly electricity provider, will build charging stations at 50 kilometer intervals, according to CRI English. "Drivers only need to charge their cars six or seven times" during the 1,200-kilometer journey. Each charge takes about 30 minutes.

Six or seven times? With each charge taking 30 minutes? That adds 3.5 hours to a 15-hour drive, compared to three, maybe four, ten-minute stops for gas along the way.

Although the cost for the charging will be less than RMB 400, the amount of idle time for charging is significant. Three gasoline fills would be about RMB 900-1,000 for the same distance.

Beijing municipal government efforts to encourage the purchase and use of electric cars have had little juice. As of June 2014, of 9,000 allotted license plates for electric cars – which do not require entering the Beijing license plate lottery – only 331 had been taken.

The Beijing Municipal Government states that by 2017 the city will have 10,000 charging stations, and that anyone on the Fifth Ring Road will be within five kilometers of a charge. Charging stations for electric taxis are already visible from the Fifth Ring Road, although the taxis themselves are rarely seen on city streets.

Photo: Advanced Mobility Program