Originally published on CleanTechnica.
There are now more than 40,000 electric vehicle charging spots in Japan — which means that charging spots are now more common than the roughly 35,000 gas stations in the country — according to a new survey from Nissan.
It should be noted here, though, that not all of the above-mentioned charging sites are located in publicly accessible locations — but the gas stations are almost entirely publicly accessible.
These figures compare rather interestingly to those from the US — where there are currently around 9,000 EV charging stations, and around 114,500 gas stations. However, there are also wall plugs across the US that can be used for charging. (See: “500 Million EV Charging Stations In The US“)
“An important element of the continued market growth is the development of the charging infrastructure,” commented Joseph G Peter, Nissan’s chief finance officer, in an interview with Bloomberg.
The Guardian provides more:
While plug-ins are becoming more affordable, potential owners are put off by the fear of finding themselves far from home and unable to recharge. That is not a problem in Japan, where there are now 6,469 CHAdeMO quick chargers, compared with 3,028 in Europe and 1,686 in the US. When added to lower-level charging stations, the total number of power points in Japan exceeds 40,000.
Critics have pointed out, however, that Nissan’s figures include a huge number of chargers installed in private garages that, for the most part, are used by a single owner. Petrol stations, they add, have multiple pumps and so can serve more vehicles in a day than a single charging point.
But industry experts are predicting single-user charging stations will become a thing of the past with the emergence of a power point version of Airbnb that allows private owners to share with other drivers.
And, of course, there is always the possibility that some of the major auto manufacturers will follow Tesla’s lead and develop their own charging station networks. Which would greatly boost availability.
Related: “North American Tesla Supercharger Network Surpasses CHAdeMO In Charging Point Numbers”
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