An electric vehicle charging station in Changzhou city, east China’s Jiangsu province. (PHOTO: VCG)

By Staff Reporters

Changzhou is one of the birthplaces of modern Chinese industry, and one of the typical cities of the South Jiangsu model. A distinctive feature of this model is to dare to achieve something significant from scratch.

Apart from its well-known manufacturing industry, the new energy industry has become an emerging signature industry in the city. According to Hurun China New Energy Cities 2022, Changzhou is among the top five cities with the highest concentration of new energy industry in China, ranking after Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan.

Official data shows that, in 2022, the output value of Changzhou's new energy sector exceeded 500 billion RMB. Three industries, including power batteries, new energy vehicles and the photovoltaic industry increased by 96.5 percent year-on-year, contributing 102.2 percent to the growth of the city's industrial output value.

In late January, Changzhou released two policies to advance its development in the new energy sector.

It proposes to promote the use of new energy in all fields across the city, strengthen intelligent and digital transformation, and improve the industrial chain in power generation, energy storage, transmission and application.

Back in 2010, Changzhou began its exploration of power batteries. Enterprises both foreign and domestic, along with research institutes cooperated in R&D, helping the city establish its position very early on.

Relying on power battery advantages, Changzhou gained momentum in developing its new energy industry.

Around 2016, enterprises such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd.(CATL) established themselves in Changzhou, with many other enterprises following suit and setting up their factories, enriching the local power battery industry chain. This prompted many automobile enterprises to migrate to the city, which drove the rise in new energy vehicle sales, making Changzhou a big market in this sector.

To date, among the top 10 global leading enterprises in installed power battery capacity, four are from Changzhou, namely CATLL, Baic Electronics SK (Jiangsu) Technology Co., Ltd., China Innovation Airlines, and SVOLT Energy. Changzhou's power battery production and sales account for one-fifth of China's output.

In 2025, both the scale of the new energy industry and the value of this sector in the capital market are expected to exceed one trillion RMB, said Xu Huaqin, vice mayor of the city, adding that if this target is achieved, it will be a boost for Changzhou's manufacturing scale to surpass three trillion RMB and its GDP to hit a new high by then.

In order to expand the industrial scale, from this year onwards, the parking spaces in new residential communities will establish vehicle-charging facilities, and preferential policies for parking and charging will be introduced for residents, according to Pan Dongling, director of the city's development and reform commission.