BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's State Grid plans to establish a network of its newly launched small charging piles in major cities this year, in a bid to meet the rising demand of new energy vehicle (NEV) owners, China Daily reported Thursday.
The smart charging pile, launched Wednesday by State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, the subsidiary of State Grid Corp of China, is designed based on the A4 paper size, much smaller than the traditional charging pile. Dubbed "E-elf", it can be hung on or embedded into the wall.
The company aims to install about 200,000 of such smart charging piles in major cities across China by 2020, executives said at the launch ceremony.
Shen Jianxin, general manager of State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, said the move is to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for charging electric vehicles in residential areas.
The move came amid China's enhanced efforts to significantly improve its charging technologies and facilities within three years. The country aims to optimize its charging infrastructure to give the NEV sector a boost.
The total number of electric cars in China amounted to 2.61 million last year, up 70 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Having adopted various incentives, China had more than 600,000 traditional charging piles as of 2018. But data showed the charging infrastructure is still insufficient.
