Japan has more electric charge points than fuel stations

Published Date: 10th Aug 2016

Currently Japan is the world’s third largest economy and with 34,000 petrol stations scattered across its land, the take up of electric vehicles by the Japanese has now made the number of charging points surpass the number of fuel stations.

The survey by Nissan includes private Japanese homes with the charging points installed, as well as publicly available charging stations that make up just 3,000 units in the total figures.

The figure for privately installed charging points at Japanese homes is so high due to the government offering support and subsidies for those who buy zero emission or plug-in hybrid cars.

What did Nissan have to say?

“An important element of the continued market growth is the development of the charging infrastructure,” said Joseph G. Peter, Nissan chief financial officer.

Nissan fail to consider the fact that a fuel station can fill up many cars within minutes, however electric charging stations can only charge 1-2 cars a time that can take up to 2 hours.

The figures do show that with a little help in subsidies from the government, the electric and ultra low emission vehicles can be given a little boost, change public opinion and cure that range anxiety. It is predicted that the automotive industry will change more in the next 10 years than the past 50, with estimated electric vehicle sales of 41 million by 2040.