China and Germany aim to unify charging standards for new energy vehicles

With China and Germany having officially unified charging standards for electric vehicles, many German manufacturers have made a noticeable push to expand their electric vehicle plans for the country.

Earlier this year in July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei announced at Tsinghua University (pictured) that both China and Germany would cooperate in developing the electric vehicle field. Soon after, BMW announced that it would import its i3 and i8 electric vehicles to China. In its footsteps followed VW, which announced that it will bring over the three new energy vehicles to China: the e-Up, the Golf EV and the Golf GTE plug-in hybrid. The e-Up is scheduled to make its Chinese launch by the end of this year. Mercedes-Benz has also announced plans to enter the Chinese new energy vehicle market.

China and Germany's decision to unify charging standards for EVs is quite clearly the two countries' bid to lead the global EV market. During her Chinese visit, Mrs. Merkel stressed the significance of strong EV standards, saying that they exceeded both sales and drivers in terms of importance.

In order to demonstrate its commitment to the new energy vehicle market, the Chinese government announced its plans to sell five million pure EV and hybrid vehicles by 2020. Germany, for its part, will aim to sell one million new energy vehicles over the same time frame.

However, a stumbling block to the agreement remains the fact that the Chinese company in charge of the country's charging infrastructure, the State Grid, has only installed charging posts that offer slow charging as opposed to rapid charging. In an interview with China Business News, an expert in the field stated that if the two countries could actually implement unified standards for charging posts, it would greatly influence new energy vehicle standards worldwide.

State Grid Marketing and Sales Deputy Director Shen Jianxin echoed those sentiments. "I sincerely hope that in the future charging standards will be unified globally," Mr. Shen stated, adding that any vehicles imported to the country must comply with Chinese charging standards. Whether or not the Sino-German cooperation will help bring upon this sort of change remains to be seen over the next few years as both countries work to expand their respective new energy vehicle markets.