In partnership with China Unicom, Tesla Motors will build 400 charging outlets across 120 cities in China.
US electric carmaker Tesla Motors will set up 400 charging stations at China United Network Communications (Unicom) retail stores across 120 cities, as part of a deal between the two. The said chargers would be the same as Tesla’s level 2 chargers seen at parking lots and garages in the US, but would charge at a faster rate. The company is also setting up similar charging equipment at hotels, resorts and restaurants in the US since spring 2014.
As part of the agreement, Tesla will build 20 of its high-speed superchargers at retail outlets of China Unicom in 20 cities, which will take only 20 minutes to charge half a car’s battery. The charging service will only be available for Tesla vehicles and will be free of cost.
The US firm already has more than 200 charging points across China and has 13 superchargers set up in Asia. It has previously completed similar deals to build charging outlets with Chinese property developers including Soho China and China Yintai Holdings.
Tesla plans to invest hundreds of million in dollars in building its charging stations as a strategy to beat its international competition–BMW and Diamler.
The firm has already brought in its Model S sedan in Beijing and Shanghai in April 2014. The Chinese market will soon witness BMW launch its electric sedan i3 and plug-in hybrid i8 sports car in October 2014, while Diamler will introduce its electric car Denza this year end.
It is because of shortage of charging facilities that have largely affected electric car sales in China, cutting short Beijing’s goal to put five million green vehicles on the road by 2020. Keeping that in mind, the Chinese government recently started incentivizing the purchase of electric cars and is considering to invest $16 billion in charging infrastructure alone.
Photo Credits: South China Morning Post
