Poles: A few battery firms may survive shakeout

manufacturers are able to mass-produce such batteries.”

Another concern is, the majority of the battery manufacturers still rely solely on domestic EV automakers. Only China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology has signed supply contracts with international automakers, he said.

According to Kou, with governmental subsidies decreasing and costs increasing, only a few battery companies will likely survive in the future.

“These companies should have a large enough capacity so that they could continuously bring down costs. They also need to maintain proper liquidity to absorb some sudden short-term market impact,” he said.

“They should continue heavy investment in R&D (research and development) to keep up with their competitors.”

To better facilitate the EV sector, utilities are also stepping up the construction of charging networks.

Beijing-based State Grid Corp of China, which operates the majority of power distribution networks, has set up 6,286 charging stations and 56,000 charging poles spanning 31,000 kilometers of highways and more than 150 cities.

It is now the world’s largest EV charging network. It said it will install 120,000 public charging piles by 2020, covering the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shandong province and the Yangtze River Delta, as well as major cities in other regions, enabling smoother intercity travel for EVs.

By the end of 2017, China had 214,000 public charging poles and 232,000 private ones, figures from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance showed.

Given that there are 1.72 million EVs on China’s roads, the average works out to one charging pole for four EVs, probably the best in the world.