WM Motor recently announced a strategic partnership with TGOOD, aiming to set up own charging stations and improve charging services.
WM electric car. Image credit: Baidu picture
Chinese electric vehicle company WM Motor (威马汽车) reached a strategic partnership with a Chinese leading EV battery company, TGOOD (特来电), on July 18 as it aims to set up its own charging stations and build exclusive charging system.
The EV maker, which was last valued at USD 5.67 billion after it completed Series C round of funding in March this year, said it would partner with TGOOD to set up its own charging stations in demand-intensive areas for MW users allowing them to enjoy the exclusive charging service. Charging stations would be jointly constructed and maintained by the tie-up.
WM tends to improve its charging service via the partnership. For instance, it said its users would fuel electric cars by directly inserting the charger, and then the charger could automatically match cars and start working in a few seconds. WM also announced the "dual charging protection technics" that would record every charging process. While real-time monitoring of battery, the system would quickly respond to abnormal situations like overcharging.
Sources from Bloomberg says over 300,000 public EV chargers were established in China by the end of 2018, far more than any other country in the world. But the number is expected to keep rising in the future. According to The National Development & Reform Commission, 4.8 million charging piles will be constructed by 2020 and the charging station market will expand to USD 26.8 billion at that time.
In the increasingly competitive charging market, WM's decision to build its own charging system somehow promotes its branding effects, and unlike its competitors such as NIO who pursues fast charging, safety-first charging solutions may help distinguish WM from rest EV makers.
Now, EV makers are paying more attention to charging services. For instance, NIO, WM's biggest domestic EV maker, announced spinning off its battery department and renamed it as a new subsidiary company. In addition to R&D of powering battery, the affiliated entity will focus on charging services such as battery swap, charger map and "one-click for power", see here for details.
Early in 2017, WM started engaging in charging station market. By partnering with TGOOD, WM is getting closer to establishing a sound charging ecosystem.