Yes-Energy Service Co (裕電能源), an electric charging services arm of Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車), is this month expanding its services to Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) to cater to growing demand from electric-vehicle drivers in the nation’s high-tech heartland.
The company targets enterprise clients in promoting its smart electric charging system, and offers client services such as installing electric charging points or operating their electric charging systems.
Yes-Energy, which has a 30 percent share of the domestic electric charging equipment market, on Thursday said that it is partnering with a semiconductor company to build charging piles in science park parking lots next to its fabs so that employees have a place to charge their electric vehicles while at work.
The semiconductor company’s workers can swipe their employee identification card to pay for the charge and the fee would be directly deducted from their pay, Yes-Energy said in a statement.
The partnership came as a spike in electric vehicle sales boosted demand for electric charging piles, Yes-Energy said.
The Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), which operates about seven fabs in Hsinchu, has teamed up with Yes-Energy to install charging piles so that its employees can charge their electric vehicles, but Yes-Energy declined to comment.
Since early this year, usage of electric charging piles has surged 1.6-fold from last year, the company’s tally showed.
Charging times have also increased twofold on an annual basis, indicating that the electric charging service market is growing at a pace similar to the local electric vehicle market, it said.
In the first half of this year, the company’s charging piles were used 35,000 times, it added.
In the first half of this year, domestic sales of electric vehicles increased about 1.4 times year-on-year to 2,407 units, including 1,881 units of Tesla Inc’s Model 3, Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics showed.
As of the end of last month, Yes-Energy had installed 1,800 charging piles for electric vehicles and scooters, the company said.
Although drivers can now use the stations for free, the company said that from next month, it would collaborate with Window on China Theme Park (小人國主題樂園) in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭) on stations and charge for their use.
Electric vehicle drivers would need to pay for using charging points for the foreseeable future, it said.
The company seeks to partner with shopping malls and residential communities to increase the accessibility of electric chargers, Yes-Energy said, without providing a detailed timetable.
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