The main function of the smart flap lock is to restrict the unpaid vehicles from leaving. It was introduced from Japan in 2002 and was first used for self-service parking fee management in open, non-standard, narrow and small parking lots above the curb where the gate is not suitable for installation. The "pay and drop" attribute of the smart flap provides technical support for ensuring the charging rate of open parking lots, and gradually extends to road parking scenarios below the curb. It was first used in road parking fee management in 2014.
With the increasing prominence of the problem of road parking arrears, since 2020, the application scale of smart flaps in the road parking market has risen rapidly, with an average annual cumulative growth rate of 35%. By the end of 2024, the number of road parking spaces managed by smart flaps has reached 105,000.
MRCPO, the market research center of China Parking Network, found that in 2014, smart flaps were first used in road parking management, and in the following years they were small-scale pilot applications.
In 2019, the market for smart flap locks for road parking saw a leap-forward growth, mainly reflected in the continuous expansion of the application scale and the increasing number of application cities. After 2020, the annual installation volume will basically remain above 20,000. As of December 2024, there will be 105,000 smart flap road parking spaces built or under construction nationwide, accounting for 3% of the total number of smart road parking spaces. Among them, 23,000 new smart flap parking spaces will be added in 2024, accounting for 6% of the new smart parking spaces. The scale of public bidding for smart flap lock parking spaces in the field of road parking in 2024 is about 250 million yuan.