China's largest electric vehicle charging operator launched

State Grid Corp of China and China Southern Power Grid joined hands with two private firms to form a 500 million yuan ($72.5 million) company specialized in charging facilities.

The new company – Xiongan Lianxing Network Technology Co – is China's largest electric vehicle charging operator, boasting about 80 percent of the country's 730,000 charging piles.

Registered in Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, the company aims to deploy more charging stations across the nation to underpin the burgeoning new energy vehicle sector, said Feng Yi, a board member of the company.

"We plan to roll out a super application by the middle of 2019, through which EV users can quickly locate nearby charging piles and make online payments," Feng said in an interview after the launch ceremony.

"We have also been reaching out to other top-ranking operators by pile number, and persuading them to join the platform," Feng said.

According to a government document issued in early December, China will make enhanced efforts to significantly improve its charging technologies and facilities within three years, in a further move to optimize charging infrastructure.

The newly established company was touted as a milestone in the industry for reforming the State-owned enterprises.

State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co owns 49 percent of shares in the company, and China Southern Power Grid 20 percent. The other two private companies, Qingdao Teld New Energy Co and Jiangsu-based Star Charge Co, take a 9 percent stake, respectively.

Han Jun, deputy general manager of SGCC, said that the move was part of the mixed ownership reform. It can leverage market-oriented means to break barriers and further benefit the new energy automobile industry, he said at the launch ceremony.

Yu Dexiang, chairman of Qingdao Teld New Energy Co, said the EV sector would become a strong engine behind China's economic growth, as the potential of more private companies in the industry is unleashed.