China JV to operate national charging network
In China, state-owned energy providers and private companies have formed a joint venture called Xiongan Lianxing Network Technology, which is now the largest operator of charging stations and controls 80 percent of the country’s current 730,000 charging stations.
The state-owned State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid have launched the joint venture, based in Hebei Province, with planned sales of 500 million Yuan (72.5 million dollars) together with the private companies Qingdao Teld New Energy and Jiangsu Star Charge.
The resulting joint venture is now China’s largest operator of charging stations, which has great ambitions beyond its immense inventory: a rapid expansion of the network is planned. And: “We plan to roll out a super application by the middle of 2019, through which EV users can quickly locate nearby charging piles and make online payments,” says board member Feng Yi in a China Daily report. They have also contacted other high-ranking operators and convinced them to join the platform. According to a government document mentioned in the report at the beginning of December, China will step up its efforts to significantly improve its charging technologies and facilities within three years and thus optimize its charging infrastructure.
The shares in the new joint venture are distributed as follows: State Grid holds 49 percent and China Southern Power Grid 20 percent of the shares. The two private companies each hold 9 percent of the shares. What happened with the unallocated 13 percent is not clear from the sources.
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