On August 14, China's first public EV charging stock NaaS (NASDAQ: NAAS) inked a strategic partnership with Hyundai Motor Group (China) (hereinafter referred to as Hyundai Motor Group). NaaS, by leveraging its experience and competence in charging services, will provide one-stop smart charging service solutions specially designed for Hyundai models, to spur upgrades in EV charging service with joint effort.

As agreed, NaaS will develop charging service, order management, points and other systems for Hyundai Motor. After such systems are launched, car owners can view the progress and status of charging and charger installation in real time through Hyundai Motor Smart Connectivity App or the center console. So to speak, easy and efficient charging service is expectable with these systems. In the future, the parties will also bring fresh scenario-based charging experiences, e.g. play-and-charge, to car owners.

Hyuk Joon Lee, President and Head of China Operations at the Hyundai Motor Group said, China is the world's biggest and fastest-growing EV market. The country not only has outstanding performance in EV sales and quantity of charging infrastructure built, but also excels in EV service quality. This will provide a valuable reference for Hyundai’s action of advancing EV service in the global market. Through cooperation with NaaS, Hyundai Motor Group will continue to improve and expand charging services to provide EV car owners with a more convenient and updated charging service experience.

Wang Yang, Founder and CEO of NaaS, said that as an integral part of new infrastructure, charging facilities play a crucial supporting role in improving the penetration of EVs. Hand in hand with new energy industry chain players, NaaS will engage users in faster, easier and more cost-effective charging service, and work with Hyundai Motor Group (China) to help upgrade charging services.

Founded in 2004, Hyundai Motor Group (China) is Hyundai Motor Group’s operation entity in China. In 2022, Hyundai Motor Group's total global sales was 6,848,198 units, ranking third in the world after Toyota and Volkswagen. For EV sector in particular, the Group proposed a sales target of 330,000 EVs this year, 940,000 by 2026, and 2 million by 2030. In December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group unveiled its new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), a dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform. The Group will develop a second-generation EV platform, which is known as the Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) by 2025. As a pioneer in the global EV market, Hyundai Motor Group will continue to expand in the Chinese market.

NaaS is China's first public EV charging stock. It provides one-stop industry chain service package from charging station siting consulting, software/hardware procurement, EPC, operation & maintenance, energy storage, PV, virtual power plant, to autonomous charging robot inclusive. As of March 31, 2023, NaaS' charging service network had connected 55,000 charging stations and 575,000 chargers. The charging volume in the first quarter was 1.023 billion kWh, representing 21% of the public charging volume in China. 

Heretofore, NaaS has been given access to NIO, XPeng, Li Auto, AITO, Voyah, HiPhi, ARCFOX, Zeekr and other leading EV platforms, and provided in-vihecle energy supply service to IoV companies such as Ohways and Banma. Other NaaS partners include Tencent Intelligent Mobility and Green Smart Connectivity among other Internet-based and sharing platform ecosystem partners. Causing a sensation on capital market, NaaS wound up a new round of SPO in May, with Dr. Adrian Cheng, rich third generation of the Cheng Yu-Tung Family of Hong Kong, and CST Group (00985.HK), an established HK-listed company, as its new strategic investors. In July, Wang Yang, Founder and CEO of NaaS was ranked among “Top 40 Chinese Business Elites under 40” by 2023 Fortune.

China Association of Automobile Manufactures (CAAM) statistics suggest that 4.591 million and 4.526 million EVs have been manufactured and sold nationwide respectively by July 2023, up 40% and 41.7% from a year earlier. CAAM projects that in 2023, electric passenger vehicle sales will nudge 9 million, with annual penetration of EVs running at 32.6%. The State Council executive session on June 2 emphasized continuation and optimization of EV purchase tax relief policy, with multi-pronged actions taken, including building a high-quality charging infrastructure system, further stabilizing market expectations and perfecting the consumption environment, and giving full play to the potential of EV consumption.

As energy supply has long been the major concern of consumers, the success of an EV model is closely related to the charging and energy supply layout planning of the OEM. The partnership between the OEMs and charging service providers can accelerate the connectivity of the charging service network, effectively improve the utilization of charging facilities, and thus driving the rapid development of EV industry.