China’s state utility cooperates with vehicle manufacturers
China’s state-owned energy supplier State Grid has entered into strategic alliances with vehicle manufacturers WM Motor, BAIC, GAC and BYD to make charging cheaper and easier.
For example, BYD offers free charging quotas of 5,000 kWh for private customers and 30,000 kWh for companies. Or, if drivers buy an EX5 520 from WM Motor, they free usage of State Grid’s charging infrastructure for three years. In the greater Beijing area, a driver should be able to reach the next charging station in just three minutes. State Grid speaks of one charging station per 0.7 square kilometres on average.
State Grid, through its wholly-owned subsidiary State Grid EV, is also striving to make a “plug-and-play” function available in its entire store network by June 2020. The shortening of the charging process from five steps to just one (the charging itself) should significantly increase the driver’s convenience.
Together with WM Motor, State Grid also wants to research V2G technology. Electric car batteries are to be integrated into the power grid as intermediate storage devices. WM Motor also wants to use the findings from this V2G cooperation to advance its V2H program (Vehicle-to-Home).
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