China, the largest country in the world according to population, the second-largest according to GDP, and the largest according to CO2 emissions, has had a tendency of late to do things in a big way. It is growing fast, and with that fast growth, it implements new projects and programs in leaps and bounds. A new electric vehicle (EV) carsharing program in Hangzhou City is one example of that.
The EV carsharing service will include a whopping 100,000 self-service EVs (if implemented as planned) when fully built out. The service will use an innovative “smart” vertical parking and charging facility. The first such facility should be complete and in use within weeks — sometime in early July.
30 smart vertical parking and charging facilities are supposed to be completed by the end of 2013, with about 5,000 to 10,000 Kandi EVs available at the facilities within one year of launch. (It will apparently take some time to get up to the 100,000 EV target — 5 years is the goal.)
“The implementation of the Pure EV Sharing Public Transportation Plan will provide convenient short-term EV rental service to Hangzhou citizens and visitors, and it also builds the foundation for establishing a mini-public transportation system of pure electric vehicles,” Mr. Hu Xiaoming, Chairman & CEO of Kandi and General Manager of Zhejiang Kandi Electric Vehicles Co., Ltd. (the “JV Company”), commented. “With more pure EV smart parking and charging facilities built and in use, it will greatly improve the efficiency of urban transportation and help easing major urban issues many Chinese cities are facing today, such as traffic congestion, scarcity of parking area, environmental pollution and energy shortage.”
Kandi Technologies Group, Inc (Kandi) came up with the idea for this smart EV carsharing service. It has also pitched the idea to Shanghai City, Chengdu City, Jiangsu area, and Hainan area. It anticipates those jurisdictions will implement similar programs in the coming months and years.
The idea came following a 9-month feasibility study aimed at identifying ways of cutting pollution as well as traffic and parking problems in Chinese cities.