Expanding charging options power NEVs for Spring Festival travel rush

BEIJING -- China's highway network is now brimming with charging options. Alongside regular charging stations, new supercharging hubs, mobile charging piles and remotely operated mobile charging vehicles are making it easier than ever for new energy vehicles (NEVs) to hit the road this Spring Festival.

Wang Qiang, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, recently made the long drive home to Wanqiao village, Chongqing municipality, in his electric car.

He was quite surprised by the new supercharging station in the village. With a power output capacity of 480 kilowatts, it can charge his car fully in just 10 minutes.

"For the first time, I drove my electric car home for Spring Festival celebrations. To my surprise, a charging station was built right near my home, so I no longer have to take the long detour downtown to charge," Wang said.

As Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) draws near, an unprecedented 9 billion inter-regional trips are expected during this year's chunyun, or 40-day Spring Festival travel rush. And many like Wang have chosen to drive their cars, including NEVs, which are gaining popularity in the country.

By the end of 2024, there were 31.4 million NEVs in China, accounting for 8.9 percent of the country's vehicles. Last year alone, 11.25 million NEVs were registered, accounting for 41.83 percent of all new vehicle registrations and representing a growth rate of 51.49 percent compared to 2023.

To cope with the surging demand for NEV charging, the National Energy Administration (NEA) will guide charging operators to enhance the maintenance of charging facilities and improve service quality, ensuring that operators provide safe, reliable, standardized and efficient services in an orderly manner, NEA spokesman Zhang Xing said on Thursday.

He added that by the end of 2024, a total of 35,000 charging piles had been installed in 98 percent of highway service areas across the country. The administration will continue to expand the coverage of charging facilities in urban and rural regions, on highways, and in residential communities.

In Wang's hometown of Chongqing, the municipal government introduced an action plan for NEV supercharging facilities in April 2024, aiming to build more than 2,000 supercharging stations by 2025.

To meet the growing demand for NEV services during the Spring Festival, a State Grid branch company is operating supercharging stations in 83 highway service areas in Chongqing. It has also deployed more than 100 mobile charging piles in high-traffic areas, at popular tourist attractions, and within urban public charging stations across the municipality.

Similar service-improvement measures are being implemented across the country. A charging station on a highway connecting Zhejiang province with Jiangxi province added 19 supercharging piles last Friday. During this Spring Festival holiday, the daily traffic on the highway is expected to exceed 95,000 vehicles.

The new supercharging piles have a significant charging capacity, with a maximum output of 600 kilowatts per charge — 10 times that of conventional fast-charging piles. They can charge an NEV's range at a rate of 1 kilometer per second, enabling NEVs to run for 400 kilometers after just an eight-minute charge. The new additions have made the station the largest highway supercharging station in Zhejiang, and it is now capable of charging 66 NEVs simultaneously.

According to a State Grid branch company in Hangzhou, which operates the station, the total charging volume of 45 highway charging stations in Hangzhou increased 71.81 percent year on year in 2024, reaching 20.28 million kilowatt-hours.

In Beijing, charging operators provide services in expressway service areas and transportation hubs, and at large shopping malls, major tourist attractions, and ice-and-snow cultural tourism venues. A State Grid branch company in the city has, for example, built a total of 108 charging stations with 1,833 charging piles.

The company has also deployed remote-controlled mobile charging vehicles at highway charging stations. These charging vehicles can provide 60-kilowatt direct current fast-charging services like huge power banks, and are capable of increasing a NEV's battery volume from 5 percent to roughly 50 percent in about 30 minutes.

The mobile charging vehicles can be controlled to approach NEVs in need of charging. Once a charging vehicle approaches, an NEV driver can initiate the charging process by scanning a QR code on the charging vehicle.

According to NEA statistics, there were 12.82 million NEV charging facilities in China by the end of 2024, a 49 percent year-on-year increase. The total charging volume of these facilities exceeded 110 billion kilowatt-hours last year, with a year-on-year growth rate of 38 percent.