Charging posts face challenges

A resident has installed the first private charging post for electric cars downtown since the municipal government began allowing residents to apply for the privilege in January 2013, local media reported Tuesday.

So far, 140 individuals have applied to the government to have a charging post installed, though only 30 applications have been approved, according to a report in the Shanghai Morning Post.

The situation sheds light on the difficulties that residents face getting charging posts.

The first private charging post was installed earlier this month at the Haiyue Garden Residential Compound in Huangpu district, said Wang Jing, an employee with Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Co, which installs charging facilities in the city.

It is difficult for individuals who apply for charging posts to meet the government's requirements, Wang said. Residents looking to install a charging post have to own their own parking space, which itself must meet a set of stringent specifications.

They also have to get approval from their residential compound's property owner's committee, which can also be an obstacle, said an engineer surnamed Liu, who specializes in electric vehicle power facilities.

If there is no property owner's committee, individuals have to persuade 80 percent of the compound's property owners to sign off on the installation, Liu said.

The installation itself can be prohibitively expensive. It can cost a resident anywhere from several thousand yuan to more than 100,000 yuan ($16,125) to install a charging post.

It also remains more of a hassle to drive an electric car downtown than in the suburbs, where there are far more charging facilities, Liu said.

There are about 2,000 charging posts in Shanghai, serving the city's 500 registered electric cars. There are 800 charging posts in Jiading district, most of which are in public places, Liu said.

Shanghai aims to have 500 charging posts installed downtown this year, said Liu Jianhua, director of the Shanghai New Energy Vehicle Promotion Office, an organization affiliated with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.

The municipal government estimated there will be more than 10,000 electric cars and 6,000 charging posts in Shanghai by the end of 2015, according to eastday.com.