China News Service, Beijing, April 26 (Reporter Zhou Yin) Zhou Rongfeng, deputy director of the Highway Bureau of the Ministry of Transport of China, disclosed at a press conference held by the Ministry of Transport on the 26th that there are currently 3,102 expressway service areas across the country. About 13,374 charging piles have been built for power exchange infrastructure, mainly in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other eastern regions, with relatively low coverage in the western and northeastern regions.

　　It is reported that China's new energy vehicle industry has entered a stage of explosive growth.

In 2021, China's new energy vehicle sales will complete 3.521 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.

However, many new energy vehicle owners are plagued by charging problems when they travel.

During the National Day holiday in 2021, the topic of "hard to find" charging piles in the expressway service area once rushed to the hot search on social media.

　　Zhou Rongfeng said that compared with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, there are indeed problems such as lagging development of charging facilities along the highway, insufficient installation and insufficient coverage.

　　Zhou Rongfeng said that this year, the Ministry of Transport will accelerate the construction of charging infrastructure along the highway.

Recently, the Ministry of Transport, together with the National Energy Administration and other departments, has studied and drafted an action plan to accelerate the construction of charging infrastructure along the highway. Based on the principle of “universal, open, intelligent and efficient”, it will accelerate the formation of a network of charging facilities along the highway with “fixed charging facilities as the main body and mobile charging facilities as supplements” to continuously meet the growing demand for electric vehicle charging.

　　Zhou Rongfeng revealed that at present, the action plan is soliciting opinions from various places.

The Ministry of Transport will revise and improve it according to the feedback, and issue it to all localities as soon as possible to promote the effective coverage of the charging infrastructure network along the highway.

(Finish)