This Massive Vending Machine Serves Up Cars

Wired

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If you find yourself in need of a ride in Hangzhou, China, you can waltz up to a multi-story garage, punch a few buttons, and have a fully charged electric vehicle deposited in front of you.

It’s a new car-sharing scheme launched by Kandi Technologies that takes the hyper-successful bike-sharing model in China and puts it onto four electrically powered wheels.

For a little over $3 an hour, these ultra-compact, Chinese-made EVs can get about 75 miles on a charge and max out at 50 mph, and when the driver is done, they can drop off their rented ride at another Kandi station near their destination.

Since its launch last year, Kandi has two EV vending machines in Hangzhou, a city of 10 million people about an hour outside of Shanghai. The company has plans to add another 10 this year, while expanding to China’s most populous cities: Beijing and Shanghai.

Of the 1.35 billion people in China, only 10 percent of the population owns a car, and that’s set to massively expand in the next decade. Since it’s impossible to reduce the demand for transportation, Kandi believes the key is to reduce the demand for privately owned cars. And even better, make them EVs to reduce carbon emissions.

Bike sharing has taken off in China, with 2,700 stations — the most in the world — sprinkled throughout the country, so people are familiar with the concept. And with the Chinese government pledging 400 billion yuan (over $66 billion) to get two million EVs on China’s roads by 2020, the Kandi Machine solves the problems of getting people into cars and keeping smog in check.

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