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

  • Pivot Power: 'We need to rethink the EV customer experience'
    October 10, 2018
    Electric vehicles will increasingly become a key part of the mobility mix but charging infrastructure is currently patchy. Adam Hill talks to Matt Allen of Pivot Power about disruption, horses, slot machines – and the importance of customer experience. Electric vehicles (EVs) – including buses, taxis and cars for individual and shared use – are already a common sight on our roads. They are not yet ubiquitous. But that will come. There will be around 30 million electric cars in the world by 2030 (as they
  • The bus future is electric, says UITP
    January 11, 2017
    More and more cities in Europe and around the world are turning to electric buses (or e-buses) in an effort to go green according to UITP’s new ZeEUS eBus Report. The report, published as part of the Zero Emission Urban Bus System project, reveals that 19 public transport operators and authorities, covering around 25 European cities, have a published e-bus strategy for 2020. By this date, there should be more than 2,500 electric buses operating in these cities, representing six per cent of their total fl
  • €7.2bn 'green' upgrade for Italian motorway
    November 21, 2022
    The A22 between Modena and Bolzano will offer hydrogen filling and EV charging
  • Let the market decide on green technologies - Global Automakers
    May 21, 2012
    “To encourage wider deployment of green technologies, including innovations that our members have on display at the Washington Auto Show this week, the government should not pick winners and losers but let the marketplace decide,” said Global Automakers’ president and CEO Michael J. Stanton, whose association represents 15 international automobile manufacturers.