A 1,200-kilometer highway that links two of China's biggest cities is being equipped with a charging system for electric vehicles, a big sign of improvement in the development of such facilities. Despite a number of measures taken by the government in recent years to encourage the development of electric cars, they account for only a fraction of all cars sold, due to such obstacles as a lack of charging stations, said experts.
The Shanghai-Beijing test drive is jointly launched by State Grid and four automakers: Chinese automakers BAIC Motor Corp and BYD Co, and joint ventures Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Co and Shenzhen BYD-Daimler New Technology Co, State Grid said. The charging system will be officially put into operation on Wednesday, State Grid said in a text message sent to the Global Times on Sunday.
New energy vehicles include pure electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. During the January-August period, output of pure electric passenger cars soared nearly 700 percent from a year earlier to 16,276 units and that for plug-in hybrid passenger cars climbed about 12 times to 6,621 units.
Shanxi provincial governor Li Xiaopeng said earlier the province will become an electric-powered, gas-powered and methanol-powered new-energy vehicle production base by 2020 with an expected annual output of 400,000 vehicles and a sales value of 50 billion yuan ($8.1 billion).
