Nov. 19 (NBD) -- The operator of Alibaba-backed electric vehicle maker Xiaopeng Motors has raised the amount of registered capital for one of its fully-owned subsidiary by a stunning 400 percent to 500 million yuan (71 million U.S. dollars), according to information platform Tianyancha on November 13.

The latest move heralds that the Chinese EV manufacturer might step further into the promising charging pile market as the subsidiary, founded in January 2018, primarily engages in charging piles production, engineering consulting service and etc.

Photo/Hua Ang (NBD)

With the delivery of its first mass-produced model, the G3, Xiaopeng Motors has been seeking to expand its presence in the sector of charging facilities. Notably, sales of the five-seater SUV tumbled from a record 2,989 units in June to only 231 units two months later. The company attributed the drop to consumers holding out in expectation of the new version, according to media outlet Technode.

Early in March, Xiaopeng Motors announced the installation of the first 30 supercharging stations in five Chinese cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan. 

This September, the first supercharging station jointly built by Xiaopeng Motors and TELD, the operator of China's largest charging network, started operation in Qingdao. To further facilitate vehicle charging, the two parties have also inked a partnership wherein charging and payment data will be shared between them countrywide. Founded in 2014, TELD claims that it has the largest charging database in the country, with its market share exceeding 40 percent.

As of September 26, the number of Xiaopeng Motors' supercharging stations has grown to 76 across 18 cities nationwide. Looking forward, the EV maker expects to have a total of 200 supercharging stations across 30 cities in the country by the end of 2019.

The dynamic Chinese EV charging market underlies Xiaopeng Motors's ambitious plan for charging infrastructure construction. National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that there foresees a 15-billion-yuan public charging service market by the end of 2019 and the size is expected to balloon to over 20 billion yuan in 2020, according to a report by market research and consulting firm iResearch.

Although China has built the world's largest EV charging network, charging piles in the country are still severely undersupplied. The country has had over one million public and personal charging piles in operation as of the end of July, a year-over-year rise of 71.9 percent, based on figures from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance.

And as of the end of the second quarter of 2019, EV population in China has reached 3.44 million units, shown the data from iResearch, with the charging pile-to-vehicle ratio at 1:3.4, a slight decrease as compared to the ratio of 1:3.37 a year earlier and 1:3.01 for the first quarter of this year.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn