Beijing: China's largest electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery swapping station has been put into operation in Beijing, Xinhua reported quoting sources in the city's power supply authorities.
Located in the eastern Beijing's Chaoyang district, the Gaoantun charging station can charge up to eight vehicles simultaneously and it takes only four to six minutes to swap a battery of an EV.
The station has been installed with over 10 types of EV charging or battery swapping machines, covering all charging modes that are available in China.
Beijing is striving to build a new energy vehicle grid as part of the nation's plan to usher in more energy-saving and environmentally-friendly vehicles.
Beijing hopes to build a three-level EV charging and battery swapping network that consists of six large-scale concentrated charging stations, 250 charging and battery swapping stations and 210 small-sized delivery stations by the end of 2015.
So far, the China's capital city has completed construction of 12 charging and battery swapping stations and 274 charging posts.
The city was chosen as one of the 25 pilot cities in China for the utilisation of new-energy vehicles.
China plans to have over 500,000 electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles on the road by 2015 and five million by 2020.
IANS
First Published: Monday, January 30, 2012, 09:57