Tesla signs up to $20bn Chinese EV charging programme

Tesla has launched the “Tesla Charging Partner Programme” in China to help promote a new nationwide EV charging standard, aimed at focussing the growth of charging infrastructure on a single system, instead of multiple standards as is currently the case. Despite the Chinese government planning to put 5 million “new-energy vehicles” on the road by 2020, up until now there has been very little coordinated effort for charging infrastructure. A single Chinese national standard, as supported by Tesla, should be a major step forward in building out the charging network across the vast country. In addition to standardising charging equipment, the rollout will include the installation of around 12,000 new charging stations, equating to 4.5 million individual chargers, at an estimated cost of roughly $20bn. Clearly Tesla already has a series of its own Superchargers in China, so it is thought that the firm will simply add the new Chinese standard to existing stations.

China has developed a new charging standard in order to more efficiently deploy a charging infrastructure capable of supporting the up to 5 million electric vehicles it hopes to get on the roads by 2020. Tesla is now fully on board and announced today the launch of the ‘Tesla Charging Partner Program’ in China to promote the national EV charging standard.

Tesla’s Vice President of Asia-Pacific, Ren Yuxiang introduced the program at the new China Quality Certification Center (CQC):

“Although the new national standard has been published, but the implementation of standards in the ground still face many challenges, Tesla actively support the new national standard, co-sponsored with the CQC ‘Tesla charging Partnership Project’, and charging partners to promote the implementation of the new national standard, as always, including China, to make positive efforts to change global sustainable energy. “

Tesla shared a few pictures of the event on its Chinese blog:

The program helps partners get certified for the new standard with interconnection tests conducted at the CQC. Tesla writes:

“Tesla charging Partnership Program” encourages partners to get the voluntary certification by CQC, Tesla will preferably go through CQC certified enterprises and products, and further testing center in China to accelerate the newly established interconnection standard.

The program behind the new Chinese charging standard, which supports both DC fast-charging and level 2 charging, is by far the most ambitious EV infrastructure program currently in development. It is expected to create roughly 12,000 public charging stations and deploy 4.5 million chargers across China, which could require an investment of up to $20 billion USD.

Tesla already operates a great number of charging stations across mainland China, though not necessarily based on the new standard. The company is expected to adapt these stations for interconnection compatibility between standards and to develop more charging points – Above you can see Tesla’s current charging stations in China with the Superchargers in red and Destination Chargers in grey.