Soon to Be Made In China: Electric Vehicle Charge Points

Posted by Big Gav in electric vehicles, etec

Earth2Tech has a post on the electric vehicle charging point infrastructure market, mentioning the large network being deployed by eTec in the US - Soon to Be Made In China: Electric Vehicle Charge Points.

Nearly half of the electric car charging equipment installed worldwide by 2015 will be heading to China, according to a recent report from Pike Research. Today an announcement from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based charging infrastructure company ECOtality indicates that China’s role in the electric car charging boom will encompass not only installing the equipment domestically, but also building it for international deployment. Down the road, when you pull up to a charge point, there’s a good chance it could have been made in China.

ECOtality, whose subsidiary eTec snagged a nearly $100 million federal stimulus grant last month to support what the company describes as “the largest deployment of EV chargers and vehicles ever” (12,750 charging systems in five states for 5,000 Nissan LEAF electric vehicles), says this morning that it has formed two joint ventures with China’s Shenzhen Goch Investment, or SGI, in order to manufacture, assemble and sell EV charging equipment in China.

1 comments

Bob Wallace says 6:34 AM

The charge points (a steel post with an electrical outlet and some controlling electronics) may be made in China.

But the installation will all be done here. Can't outsource trench digging and concrete pouring.

We may lose some of the manufacturing but there will be lots of in-country green installation jobs created.

Of course, we might just take back some of those manufacturing chores. Steel pipe and electronics are not labor intensive. As shipping prices rise along with the cost of oil the balance starts to swing toward manufacturing close to point of use.