As Chinese consumers slowly return to normal buying
patterns and the automotive market shows the first signs of recovery, the
Shanghai Municipal Government announced it would install a further 100 000 electric
vehicle (EV) charging ports and 34 500 new 5G base stations in the city.
The large-scale installation of EV charging ports and 5G base stations is part
of Shanghai’s US$38 billion investment into “new infrastructure” projects.
Other projects include the construction of big data centres, 100 autonomous
factories, assembly points, road building projects designed for testing driverless
automobiles, and 18 000 ‘smart lockers’ to support Shanghai’s growing e-commerce
trade.
The EV charging ports, of which the city of Shanghai already supports 280 000
ports and battery swapping stations, will also serve as data collection points.
X-Charge chief executive, Ding Rui, commented that 2% of the port’s
functionality is dedicated to charging EVs, while the remaining 98% is purely
interactive with the driver.
Sun Huifeng, president of CCID Consulting, China’s largest IT outsourcing firm,
said the ports would monitor driver habits, vehicle location, and battery
information. Collected data would help develop “driver portraits”,
assist in second-hand car evaluations, and allow the city planners to make
informed decisions about new building plans such as roadworks, or ascertaining
potential new port installation sites, he said.
Shanghai, already China’s leader in future tech infrastructure, will invest a
further $1,4 billion into 5G infrastructure. Places like airports, exhibition centres
and other high traffic areas would achieve an average download time of 500mbps
by the end of the three year “new infrastructures” project, according to
Shanghai’s Economy and Information Technology Commission.
EV sales in the first quarter of 2020 have slumped with the outbreak of the Covid-19
pandemic in early January. Nevertheless, China remains committed to supporting EVs.
https://www.shine.cn/biz/economy/2005077646/
