Shanghai (ZXZC)- Beijing plans to construct 100 battery swapping stations this year and further improve the new energy vehicle (NEV) deployment. Last year, 90 battery swapping stations were completed in the capital. The cumulative number of NEVs and charging piles in the city reached about 300,000 units and 200,000 units respectively by the end of 2019.

In many areas in downtown Beijing, the average service radius of the charging network is fewer than 5 km, and 1 km in the denser areas, Zhang Chungui, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission, told the media during the 2020 Beijing municipality’s two sessions. To alleviate the charging problem, great attention should be paid to the departure location and destination. At present, 140,000 of the 200,000 existing charging piles in Beijing are private, accounting for up to 70%.

Beijing proposes to promote large-scale, chain- and brand-oriented development of charging facilities in public areas to form a network with a service radius of fewer than 5 km on average in the whole area of Beijing (excluding mountainous areas) by 2020. The city intends for the charging service radius of the core urban areas, Tongzhou New city, Yizhuang, Winter Olympics areas in Yanqing to be fewer than 0.9 km.

Besides, BAIC and other automakers have begun to provide battery swapping service. Many taxis in Beijing have already employed the swapping mode and it takes a few minutes on average for a taxi to replace its battery.