New EV charging standards to be unveiled in 2012

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai December 26) - New standards for electric vehicles charging standards will be unveiled soon, nddaily.com reported Wei Zhaofeng, full-time vice president of the China Electricity Council and member of the national Standardization Administration, as saying. The standards will be unveiled one after another, Mr. Wei said, until a complete set of provisions is established.

According to a statement at the China International Electric Vehicle and Charging Equipment and Storage Technology Exhibition, held in Hainan's capital of Haikou late last week, China currently has more charging stations and charging posts than any other country in the world. CEC statistics show that there are 243 stations and 13,283 posts in the country to date. The question then is how to make and apply a unified set of standards to help further develop the fledgling industry for electric and new energy automobiles.

What is China doing to achieve this goal? According to Xu Songlin, director for the CEC's Standardization Center, there are currently 25 different projects underway, with the Standardization Administration, Ministry of Science and Technology, National Energy Bureau and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology all contributing. Six of them have already been approved.

There will reportedly be universal domestic standards for charging stations construction, logistics, outlet and power specifications and power networks.

Despite making impressive strides in developing the domestic EV industry, China has still not managed to decide on universal charging standards. Several experts have noted that without an agreed upon set of standards in place, further growth in the industry will be hampered.