Didi Plugs Into Electric-Car-Charging Venture

A subsidiary of leading Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing has agreed to invest 60 million yuan ($9.4 million) in an electric-vehicle-charging joint venture with Shandong province-based charging company Teld New Energy Co. Ltd.

The deal, announced Thursday in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange by Teld’s parent company, Qingdao TGOOD Electric Co. Ltd., will see Teld setting up a new company with Huidi Tianjin Commercial Service Co. Ltd., which Didi indirectly controls. Teld will contribute 40 million yuan to the joint venture, according to the announcement.

The new company will focus on tailoring Teld’s charging technology and network for ride-hailing drivers.

The announcement comes just two weeks after Didi, which has over 450 million registered users, launched an electric-car-sharing platform in China, in a partnership with 12 major automakers. At a United Nations forum in November, Didi CEO Cheng Wei said the company already had a fleet of about 260,000 new-energy vehicles, and planned to have 1 million by 2020.

At the same forum, Cheng said Didi was building a nationwide electric-car-charging network called “Xiaoju Chongdian,” or “Little Orange Charging,” aimed at integrating the country’s vehicle-charging stations into a platform for shared vehicles. The Xiaoju Chongdian platform went online as part of Didi’s ride-hailing app on Jan. 22, and is now available in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen, Fujian province.

Didi public relations personnel told Caixin that the joint venture with Teld will be part of Didi’s wider charging network.

With China’s government promoting electric vehicles in recent years, the charging stations that power these vehicles have also multiplied across the country. However, a combination of poor coordination between companies and low technical standards mean that many publicly accessible charging points are severely underused.

Contact reporter Teng Jing Xuan (jingxuanteng@caixin.com)