During the National Day holiday, the surge in electric vehicle travel has brought the issue of charging back into the public spotlight.

At highway service areas, new energy vehicle owners are lining up to charge, taking numbered tickets and charging in rotating rounds; popular stations are providing mobile charging facilities to ease peak-hour pressure. According to the latest data from the National Energy Administration, based on a statistical analysis of 62,700 highway charging facilities (guns) included in the national charging infrastructure monitoring service platform, in the first three days of this year's National Day holiday, the number of charging sessions for new energy vehicles on highways nationwide totaled 2.9686 million; charging volume reached 71.6193 million kilowatt-hours, averaging 23.8731 million kilowatt-hours per day, a year-on-year increase of 49.39%. October 1 marked the peak of concentrated travel, with multiple records set: nationwide highway charging volume reached 28.0469 million kilowatt-hours, up 60.4% compared with the first day of last year's National Day holiday, setting a new single-day high for holidays; the Southern Power Grid's unified charging service platform "Shunyichong" exceeded 10 million kilowatt-hours in single-day charging volume for the first time.

Strong charging demand and rising penetration of green travel are underpinned by the growing number of new energy vehicles. According to statistics, the number of new energy vehicles nationwide has reached 48.97 million, accounting for 13.19% of total vehicles, with new energy vehicles accounting for nearly half of new registrations in the first half of the year. In recent years, the performance of China's new energy vehicle products has been increasingly optimized, with the average driving range of pure electric passenger vehicles exceeding 500 kilometers, and some models exceeding 1,000 kilometers at maximum. Combined with breakthroughs in ultra-fast charging technology, "range anxiety" has been significantly alleviated. At the same time, the construction of the charging network continues to accelerate, with the total number of electric vehicle charging infrastructure (guns) exceeding 24 million, and China has built the world's largest electric vehicle charging network. Highway service areas have cumulatively built about 89,000 charging facilities; from January to August this year, about 11,000 new high-power charging facilities were added in service areas, equivalent to the total cumulative number before that.

Thanks to the continuous improvement of the charging support system, although electric vehicle travel demand was strong during this year's National Day holiday, the overall charging pressure has been significantly eased compared with previous years. "I feel there are more charging piles in service areas, maintenance is guaranteed, and electric vehicle travel is more reassuring." "There are quite a few fast-charging piles, and charging efficiency is quite high." "The mini-program allows real-time checking of charging pile status, so with advance planning, you don't have to open a 'blind box'." Many car owners say the long-distance charging experience is improving.

The charging network is being upgraded, and service support is being strengthened in tandem. Facing the massive travel demand released in a short period, various localities and departments have deployed in advance and made full preparations, while automakers have actively taken action by upgrading supercharging piles, adding mobile charging vehicles, and strengthening maintenance inspections to protect green travel. State Grid Hebei Electric Power has optimized the layout of charging stations with dense traffic in advance, equipped with high-power supercharging equipment that can intelligently allocate power based on vehicle status to improve charging efficiency, and during holidays relies on intelligent inspection robot dogs for special patrols to precisely identify equipment operation hazards. State Grid Hunan Electric Power has released a National Day highway charging guide, supporting随时 queries of charging station distribution and peak periods along the route; 19 charging stations around scenic spots such as Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain have been included in the key guarantee list, with maintenance personnel checking pile bodies, heat dissipation ports, and more station by station. In Shandong, on the Shenyang direction side of the Rizhao service area on the G15 Shenhai Expressway, vehicles line up in an orderly manner in front of the NIO battery swap station, and in about 3 minutes, a vehicle completes the battery swap and continues its journey. This is an important charging point for tourists from the Yangtze River Delta heading north to Jiaodong, and since the National Day holiday, the average daily battery swap volume has remained above 200 orders. "Based on historical battery swap data, we forecast the load of high-demand stations. Rather than waiting until the batteries are nearly depleted before dispatching, we pre-position fully charged batteries and enable neighboring stations to support each other, balancing the battery reserves at each station." Wang Qinghua, head of energy services at NIO Energy Qingdao Company, told reporters that the station continuously optimizes battery charging sequencing to ensure battery supply and battery swap efficiency.

Admittedly, the "tidal" charging problem during holidays remains an unavoidable practical test, and some netizens have complained that charging queues at service areas are long and waiting times are too long. The reporter noted that some popular highway service area stations, in order to reduce the average charging time per vehicle, encourage owners to free up parking spaces promptly when charging reaches 80% during peak periods. What is the basis for such an arrangement? Will it damage the battery? "Due to the characteristics of electric vehicle lithium batteries, to protect battery life and charging safety, charging is generally faster when the battery level is low. After charging to about 80%, the system switches to constant voltage charging mode, and the speed drops significantly." Qin Jian, director of the charging service center at State Grid Smart Internet of Vehicles Technology Co., Ltd., said that charging to 80% will not affect the battery, and during holiday travel peaks it can effectively improve overall charging efficiency and ease charging queue pressure.

In the short term, as the return peak of the National Day holiday approaches in the coming days, industry insiders suggest off-peak charging, trying to avoid daytime charging peaks and choosing nighttime or early morning charging; flexible planning, going to areas near highway entrances and exits or off the highway to charge in the city, which is often more efficient with shorter queues. Relevant parties said they will further strengthen dispatch monitoring and continue to ensure new energy vehicle travel during the holiday. In the long term, improving charging support service capacity is a long-term systematic task that requires all parties to work together and make sustained efforts. Looking ahead, more multi-dimensional efforts are needed in "densifying the network, improving efficiency, shoring up weaknesses, and optimizing services." The "15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of the New Power System" deploys efforts to promote the renovation and upgrading of charging facilities in highway service areas, build an intercity network that effectively meets medium- and long-distance travel needs; increase the proportion of fast-charging facilities; and by 2030, the total number of charging infrastructure will exceed 40 million, with about 300,000 high-power charging facilities, forming charging service capacity to support more than 110 million electric vehicles. The "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry" proposes to continuously improve performance levels such as power battery safety, charging rate, low-temperature applicability, and cycle life; strengthen the weak links in rural charging facility construction, and continuously improve charging and battery swap service efficiency. The blueprint has been laid out, and it is hoped that the charging network will become denser, charging technology will continue to be tackled, and service support will keep improving, making green travel more relaxed and worry-free.