On July 31, at the Semi-annual District/County Competition in Huzhou City in 2023, NaaS (NASDAQ: NAAS), China's first public EV charging stock, was awarded a "Contributor" that takes concrete action and dares to be the first in Huzhou City for the first half of 2023.

Since this year, Huzhou has continued to deepen the practice of the theme of "Seeing Beautiful China in Huzhou", and in the process of accelerating the realization of "six New Huzhou goals" and building Huzou into a model eco-civilized city at a high level, a large number of advanced representatives such as "Runners", "Contributors" and "Strivers" sprung up, who have undertaken their missions and dared to be the first. Huzhou has provided instant incentives to these advanced collectives and individuals.

As a new energy company based in Huzhou, NaaS is the provider of one-stop solutions in charging service, covering charging station siting consulting, software/hardware procurement, EPC, O&M, energy storage, PV, virtual power plant and autonomous charging robot, aiming to improve industrial efficiency by leveraging digital technologies and AI. As of March 31, 2023, NaaS' charging service network had covered 55,000 charging stations and 575,000 chargers. NaaS’s charging volume in the first quarter was 1.023 billion kWh, representing 21% of the public charging volume in China.

Guided by the Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Goals, the sales of EVs in China have hit record highs consecutively, and the construction of charging infrastructure has also accelerated. According to China Association of Automobile Manufactures (CAAM), from January to June in 2023, the cumulative sales of EVs reached 3.747 million, with a year-on-year growth of 44.1% and a penetration rate of 28.3%. According to China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA), as of June 2023, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure nationwide was 6.652 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 69.8%.

In this context, Huzhou has been running on the "fast track" of EV development and charging infrastructure building. In 2022, the city's incremental EVs reached 24,472, up 85.99% from a year earlier, thus its car parc of EVs reached 52,931. Meanwhile, the city has been pushing forward the construction of charger projects at highway service areas, the "accessibility of EV chargers in rural areas", by unveiling relevant implementation policies for construction of chargers, PV systems, energy storage stations and energy management systems. By December 2023, Huzhou is expected to realize full coverage of chargers in key rural areas. In doing so, NaaS will use its best endeavor to help the city build a high-quality charging service network at faster pace.

Since earlier this year, NaaS has been delivering practical benefits in PV combined energy storage charging, virtual power plant, destination charging service, etc. In March, NaaS and Smart Order, a leading integrated hotel IT solution provider, established a joint venture - Smart Charging, to help rural revitalization by improving the EV charging service network of B&B and rural areas and innovating charging station construction, and O&M modes. In July, NaaS Virtual Power Plant (VPP) has passed the capacity test of Shenzhen VPP management platform, China's first grid-ground integrated VPP operation management platform, thus was accredited as a Shenzhen VPP load aggregator. The PV combined energy storage charging demonstration station built in the China Bamboo Expo Park, Anji has become one of the major stations for integration of virtual power plant resources.

The development of NaaS has attracted the attention of all parties in the capital market. In May, NaaS wound up a new round of SPO, with Dr. Adrian Cheng, rich third generation of the Cheng Yu-Tung Family of Hong Kong, and CST Group (00985.HK) as its new strategic investors. In July, Wang Yang, Founder and CEO of NaaS was included in the Top 40 Chinese Business Elites Under 40 in Fortune China 2023.

With continuous expansion, NaaS has exhibited more and more carbon reduction value in the practice of transportation energy. In 2022, NaaS recorded an annual carbon emission reduction of 1.8477 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 106.22%, further contributing to the urban and rural construction in Huzhou and creating a "Huzhou example" for the development of the new energy industry.

The green and low-carbon practice of NaaS, as well as its efforts in promoting the construction of chargers and the sustainable development of the EV industry, are consistent with the theme of "Seeing Beautiful China in Huzhou", which will help Huzhou pursue the green and low-carbon development path and strive to build a model eco-civilized city.