Fifteen pure electric cars, produced by the Beijing Automotive Group, have become available to rent in Beijing. The car rental scheme, initiated by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology, is based at Tsinghua University Science Park in the Haidian District of Beijing.
The cars require five to six hours to fully charge and have a range of 120 kilometres. The cars are designed for city driving, in slow traffic energy is conserved and the range can be up to 160 km. A fast charge takes just 30 minutes to get the battery to an 80% level of charge and provides a range of 100 km. There is currently one fast charger and ten slow charging points in the University Park.
The cars are available to rent by the hour, day or month from 49 Yuan for two hours, 99 Yuan per day and 1,999 Yuan for a month, this is comparable to the cost of renting an ICE vehicle.
According to Beijing’s science and technology commission, 750 electric taxis are available in the suburbs, and 2 000 more will come into service in Beijing this year. Over the coming year the city will have similar EV rental services in all of its science parks.
