Is it difficult to charge for the Spring Festival? There is a big difference between the north and the south! The "travel tide" of the Spring Festival has triggered the "charging tide", and if you want to solve the problem fundamentally, you need to comprehensively improve the quantity and efficiency!
Every Spring Festival holiday, all parts of the country will usher in a wave of self-driving homecoming craze - Spring Festival. According to the Ministry of Transport, this year's Spring Festival, the national cross-regional flow of people will reach 9 billion, of which the Spring Festival Expressway and ordinary national and provincial trunk non-business passenger car travel volume will reach 7.2 billion people, accounting for about 80% of the total flow of people, or a record high. And every Spring Festival, new energy vehicles will be pushed to the forefront because of the problem of difficult charging. This year is no exception. For example, the sudden blizzard in Hubei before Chinese New Year's Eve closed the road, forcing countless electric vehicles to "lie down". For example, in a service area in Zhejiang Province at the peak of the return journey, the new energy vehicles to be charged have already lined up for a long time, and the owners have consciously begun to "take the number" and queue up. During the Spring Festival, with the rapid increase in the number of new energy vehicles returning to their hometowns, road congestion, and the charging anxiety of car owners has also been amplified, especially in the context of the average traffic volume of this year's Spring Festival exceeding the same period last year, and the rapid rise in the number of new energy vehicles. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the difficulties and pain points faced by new energy vehicle owners driving along the highway, the reporter of "Automobile Vertical" conducted a survey on the utilization of charging piles along the national highway. The "Traveling Tide" triggers the "Charging Tide".
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Public Security, by the end of 2023, the number of new energy vehicles in the country will reach 20.41 million, accounting for 607%。In 2023, 7.43 million new energy vehicles will be newly registered, a year-on-year increase of 3876%。In terms of charging piles, according to the data of the State Grid Smart Vehicle Networking Platform, from the beginning of the Spring Festival on January 26 to February 5, in 11 days, the State Grid Smart Vehicle Networking Platform has reached 3408 new energy vehicles in the expressway service area910,000 kWh with 151 charging times940,000 times, an increase of 67 over the same period in 202306% and 4842%。According to CCTV, during the Spring Festival in 2024, the peak hour of the busy index of the entire expressway will reach 30%-40%. This shows that 30%-40% of all stations on the expressway are in a state of full charge. In normal times, the charging busyness of these stations is only about 10%, and the busyness has doubled or tripled. 
Usually more idle, not enough holidays. During the Spring Festival, the "travel tide" of new energy vehicles has triggered a "charging tide". According to public information, since January 26, about 210,000 new energy vehicles have been passed on the Jiangsu expressway network every day, accounting for about 9% of the road network traffic; The average daily entry of new energy vehicles into the service area is about 430,000 vehicles, accounting for about 6% of the vehicles entering the area; The average daily charge is about 140,000 units, an increase of about 44% from the usual day. The average daily charging of new energy vehicles is about 3650,000 kWh, the charging capacity of the bicycle is about 26 degrees, and the charging time of the bicycle is about 22 minutes. It is also a "big charging province", and the situation in Hubei is no exception. It is reported that during the Spring Festival holiday (February 9 to February 17), State Grid Hubei Electric Power provided a total of 62 charging services for new energy vehicles350,000 times, a year-on-year increase of 5784%；From the perspective of charging type, the high-speed charging amount is 327090,000 degrees, accounting for 2321%, a year-on-year increase of 5585%。In response to the skyrocketing traffic flow, during the Spring Festival, there are measures on highways across the country. For example, the power supply department of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, has renovated 7 service areas and 14 charging stations in its jurisdiction, and equipped mobile charging vehicles; The Qinhu service area located on the Yanjing Expressway in Taizhou is specially equipped with a 120kW mobile charging vehicle, which can provide uninterrupted charging services for four electric vehicles at the same time. In the Pingwang service area of Wujiang District, Suzhou City, there are a total of 16 charging spaces in the north-south direction of the service area. Since the Spring Festival, affected by the high-speed tidal phenomenon, the 8 charging spaces on the north side of the service area are basically in a "full" state every day, while there are idle parking spaces on the south side. The local staff guided some of the cars on the larger side of the traffic to the idle service area on the opposite side through the two-way traffic culvert for charging, which effectively improved the carrying capacity of the service area. In addition, during the Spring Festival, the Tianjin Electric Power Department also launched emergency charging pods in expressway service areas, and upgraded the charging facilities of 46 busy high-speed charging stations, reducing the average charging time by nearly 30% after the transformation. The structural differences between the north and the south are significant.
On the way from Beijing to Zhangjiakou by car, the reporter of "Automobile Vertical" also noticed an interesting phenomenon: compared with the situation that many service areas in Zhejiang Province and Hubei Province need to queue up for charging, Hebei Province, where the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is relatively low, most of its high-speed service area charging stations can basically be charged at any time without waiting. This phenomenon actually reveals the structural differences in the charging facilities of new energy vehicles along the highway on the one hand. "There is not enough in the south, and there is no one in the north. A relevant person working in the Zhangjiakou Xiahuayuan service area (Lhasa direction of the Beijing-Tibet Expressway) told reporters that during this year's Spring Festival, there are significantly more vehicles to charge than usual, but the charging piles in the service area are enough to meet the demand during the peak period. It is reported that the service area is equipped with a total of 2 super charging piles and 6 ordinary air-cooled electric piles, all of which are operated by the State Grid, and the charging fee is implemented according to the peak and valley electricity price. "Now the battery life of new energy vehicles has come up, basically can run 500-600 kilometers, and short-distance travel is the majority, many car owners who come to our service area to charge are from Beijing full power, so there are not many cars to charge here. The staff further explained that the service area has the province's first fully liquid-cooled supercharging station, with a maximum output of 600 kilowatts, which can provide super fast charging services for new energy vehicles with super fast charging functions, and the charging efficiency is 10 times that of ordinary charging piles, so even during peak periods, the service area can easily cope with it. 
According to data from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, from January to December 2023, the increase in charging infrastructure was 33860,000 units, and the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 94950,000 units, charging infrastructure and new energy vehicles continue to grow rapidly. The increment ratio of pile truck is 1:28. The construction of charging infrastructure can basically meet the rapid development of new energy vehicles. Zou Peng, Executive Secretary-General of the Charging and Swapping Branch of the China Association and the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, also said at the 2023 China Automobile Charging and Swapping Ecological Conference that in the past two years, the construction of the charging facility network along the highway has been gradually improved with the participation of the competent authorities and all parties, and the problem of charging difficulties is gradually being solved. However, we have to admit that structural differences remain. From the perspective of the geographical layout of charging piles, data from the Ministry of Transport shows that by the end of 2023, a total of 6,328 service areas across the country have been equipped with charging facilities, accounting for 95% of the total number of service areas; There are more than 20,000 charging piles in highway service areas across the country, covering nearly 50,000 parking spaces for small passenger cars. Among them, 15 provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hunan, Xinjiang and other expressway service areas have all been equipped with charging capacity, so the difference between the north and the south is not obvious. From the perspective of electricity consumption, data from the State Grid Smart Vehicle Networking Platform show that the amount of high-speed charging in the southern region is generally large during the Spring Festival, accounting for more than three-quarters (77%), of which Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Hubei and other charging volumes are in the forefront of the country. It can be seen that the distribution of piles is almost the same, and the difference is reflected in the electricity consumption. During the Spring Festival, the phenomenon of "charging tide" is obvious, the demand for new energy vehicles in the south is large, and there are relatively few new energy vehicles in the north, which leads to the general shortage of piles in the south, and there are still idle piles in some areas in the north. In order to solve the above problems, we must not only consider increasing the number of charging piles, but also improve the charging efficiency in combination with the actual operation of various places. To solve the problem, it is necessary to improve the quantity and efficiency.
Two cars and one pile do not make money, and one car and one pile are unrealistic. Liu Kai, director of the Technology and Certification Department of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, pointed out that the construction of a charging service network along the highway not only faces the common problems of the construction and operation of charging facilities in general scenarios, but also the characteristics of scenarios along the highway. Further promoting the improvement of energy charging infrastructure, improving the overall utilization rate of charging piles, and improving the efficiency of energy charging are still the key points to solve the long-distance range of electric vehicles. In other words, operators of high-speed charging stations should consider not only whether it is convenient for car owners to charge, but also whether the charging pile is fast enough. Fortunately, the state is already in action. Not long ago, the Ministry of Transport and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure along the Highway" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which focused on expressways and ordinary national and provincial trunk roads from the national level for the first time, and put forward the requirements for the construction of charging facilities. From the perspective of the application of new technologies and new equipment for charging facilities, the "Plan" proposes to build ultra-fast charging and high-power electric vehicle charging infrastructure to improve charging efficiency. At present, the technical selection of charging facilities that have been built in the expressway service area is mainly based on 120kw one-machine double-gun charging piles, which is difficult to meet the short-term centralized emergency charging needs of holidays from the actual operation situation. This is not only due to the low acceptable charging power of some vehicles, but also related to the unreasonable selection of charging facility technology. Therefore, the plan is intended to promote the construction of ultra-high-power charging facilities along the highway to match the needs of high-power charging models, so as to minimize the waiting time of users and reduce the situation of queuing for charging on the highway. At present, most of the charging stations in high-speed service areas across the country will introduce high-power charging equipment into the plan to meet the growing demand for new energy vehicle charging. For example, the red-themed liquid-cooled supercharging demonstration station built in the Ningxiang South Service Area of Ningshao Expressway in Changsha City, Hunan Province has been officially put into use during the Spring Festival last year, with a maximum output of 600 kilowatts, which can be charged for 5 minutes and has a maximum range of 300 kilometers. In September of the same year, the first "optical storage and charging integration" charging station in the expressway service area of Jiangsu Province was officially put into use in the Baiyanghu service area of Changtai Expressway, with the fastest charging efficiency of "charging one second and driving one kilometer", which is expected to serve 200,000 new energy vehicles per year; In October of the same year, the first super charging station of Guangxi Expressway, "Beitou Yijia Super Charging Station", was officially put into operation in the Qinzhou West Service Area of G75 Lanhai Expressway......In addition, a number of electric vehicle companies have also launched relevant services to ensure the travel of car owners during the Spring Festival. For example, Xpeng Motors has launched free rescue services for the New Year, and set up "New Year Energy Replenishment Stations" at supercharging stations on selected travel routes. Nezha Automobile provides 7 24-hour car consultation during the Spring Festival, and if the owner has no power during the journey, accidental tire burst or vehicle accident, etc., he can enjoy free roadside assistance services during the Spring Festival. In terms of NIO, the 260+ NIO service centers will not be closed, and will make every effort to dispatch resources to ensure the demand for local and remote travel services. In addition, if car owners need to go to the ten northern provinces and regions during the Spring Festival, they can participate in the "Warm Winter Action" to enjoy free addition of antifreeze and glass water, free replacement and storage of winter tires, etc., and some cities also provide short-term rental services for winter tires. Liu Kai said that in the critical stage of the transformation of the new energy vehicle industry from policy-driven to market-driven, the use of relevant charging technology combined with relevant incentives and subsidies and financial and fiscal policies to alleviate the contradiction between profitability and high cost has a leading role in stabilizing industry expectations and promoting the construction of charging facilities along the highway. The construction of a charging service network along highways based on ultra-high-power fast charging and a community charging service network focusing on orderly slow charging will be an important way to further improve the charging service guarantee capacity to meet the charging demand of more than 20 million electric vehicles by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan.