Skip to main content

Beijing to trial street lamp EV chargers

Beijing has launched a pilot project to transform street lamps to serve as charging poles for electric cars. Eighty-eight high-pressure sodium lamps on a road in the city have been converted into energy-saving LED lamps. Eight charging poles have been installed and put into trial operation using the energy saved from the new LED lamps, said the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission. The charging poles work day and night, reducing charging demand for electric taxis and private cars in the
January 12, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Beijing has launched a pilot project to transform street lamps to serve as charging poles for electric cars.

Eighty-eight high-pressure sodium lamps on a road in the city have been converted into energy-saving LED lamps. Eight charging poles have been installed and put into trial operation using the energy saved from the new LED lamps, said the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.

The charging poles work day and night, reducing charging demand for electric taxis and private cars in the area, said the commission.

Beijing plans to expand the project to other areas and intends to build 10,000 public charging poles for electric cars by 2017, to be installed in airports and train stations, public parking lots, malls and supermarket parking lots, highway rest areas, electric car dealers and gas stations.

The Chinese government has been encouraging consumers to buy electric vehicles as a solution to the country's pollution problems, but the plan has been hindered by a bottleneck in the charging infrastructure.

China's electric car production jumped fourfold to 83,900 vehicles in 2014, according to the 4821 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In 2014, output of pure electric passenger cars rose 300 percent from a year earlier to 37,800, with plug-in hybrid passenger cars reaching 16,700 units.

Measures including tax exemptions, price subsidies and requirements for government departments to buy green cars are in place. However, new energy cars still account for only a small proportion of total output. In the first 11 months of 2014, China's automotive industry produced 21.1 million vehicles.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Scania delivers hybrid buses to Madrid
    May 13, 2016
    As part of its measures to reduce pollution in the city, the City of Madrid is to take delivery of 51 hybridised Scania Citywide buses in June. These feature cost-saving and emission-reducing hybrid technology that meets the EU suburban and short distance Class II regulations. Madrid recently enforced tough temporary measures to tackle pollution, including limiting speed limits and banning passenger car access to the city centre if nitrogen oxide levels exceed acceptable levels. In parallel, the Madrid t
  • Electric boats and ships 2017-2027: Large market emerging, says IDTechEx
    January 13, 2017
    Analysts at IDTechEx have issued a new report, Electric Boats and Ships 2017-2027 looking at this fragmented but often highly profitable and growing sector. It says there are already over 100 manufacturers of electric boats and ships. The report finds that the market for hybrid and pure electric boats and ships will rise rapidly to over US$20 billion worldwide in 2027 for non-military versions. The recreational boat market is the largest and fastest growing electric marine market in sales number, followe
  • UK drive to be world leader in electric cars
    January 31, 2014
    UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that government will invest more than US$15 million to boost the number of charging points for electric cars. Major car manufacturers BMW, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall are all backing the Go Ultra Low campaign in a ground breaking partnership with government to debunk common myths and misconceptions that put drivers off switching to electric or hybrid cars, such as cost and how far the vehicles can travel before being recharged. Electric car o
  • San Antonio, Texas, chooses Toshiba LED street lights
    October 1, 2012
    Toshiba International is to replace over 20,000 high-pressure sodium (HPS) street lamps in San Antonio, Texas with LED luminaires. The city’s existing 250-watt HPS luminaires consume 310 system watts and are being replaced by Toshiba’s 100-watt 42-chip TGT LED luminaires. According to Toshiba, product durability and low energy consumption means LED lighting provides one of the lowest life cycle costs of any lighting technology.