Lack of charging devices deter electric car buyers

A Renault electric car Zoe is pictured with a charger plugging in on March 5, 2014 at Geneva International Motor Show at Switzerland. [Hao Yan / chinadaily.com.cn]

About 40 percent of potential customers who were planning to purchase electric cars in Beijing had to drop the plan last year as they were unable to have charging devices installed, according to a report by Beijing Morning Post on Tuesday.

More than 300 people had registered in the first batch to buy fully electric cars, but only 126 of them were able to purchase them. Among those who had to drop the plan, some were unable to find a suitable place for the charging pole, while the others discovered their community does not have high enough power capacity for a plug-in recharger.

Some old areas in Beijing cannot bear the thousands of watts power load needed to charge the car, and these communities are also short of fixed places for charging devices.

"General charging devices need 7,000 watts power. In old communities the power supply to a whole building will probably trip as soon as an electric car starts charging," said Tan Deguo at Electric Vehicle Beijing, which is engaged in promoting electric car for mass consumption.

A customer, surname Wang, who lives in Chaoyang district in Beijing, found that there was no private parking space to install a charging device.

Among the 126 who purchased the electric car, only 80 were successfully able to install a charging device. The others have to use portable charging tools, which require extending an electric wire from home to the ground parking space. However, using portable charging infrastructure has limitations, such as the car must be parked close to the owner's window that should be lower than five floors.