During the National Day holiday, the surge in electric vehicle travel has brought the issue of refueling back into the public spotlight, with queues at highway service area charging stations, on-site number-taking, and staggered charging rounds; popular stations providing mobile charging facilities to ease peak 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 facility monitoring service platform, in the first three days of this year's National Day holiday, the total number of charging sessions for new energy vehicles on national highways reached 2.9686 million; charging volume reached 71.6193 million kilowatt-hours, averaging 23.8731 million kilowatt-hours per day, an increase of 49.39% compared to the same period last year. Among them, October 1 was the concentrated travel peak, with multiple data points "setting new records": national highway charging volume reached 28.0469 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 60.4% over the first day of last year's National Day holiday, setting a new historical high for a single holiday day; the Southern Power Grid's unified charging service platform "Shunyichong" saw its single-day charging volume exceed 10 million kilowatt-hours for the first time.

Charging demand is strong, and the penetration rate of green travel continues to rise, driven by the growing number of new energy vehicles. According to statistics, the national new energy vehicle fleet has reached 48.97 million units, 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 reaching over 1,000 kilometers. 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, service areas added about 11,000 high-power charging facilities, equivalent to the total cumulative number before that.

Thanks to the continuous improvement of the charging support system, although electric vehicle travel demand was booming during this year's National Day holiday, the overall charging pressure situation has significantly eased compared to 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 that the long-distance refueling experience is improving.

As the charging network upgrades, service guarantees are also being strengthened simultaneously. Facing the massive travel demand released in a short period, various regions and departments have deployed in advance and made full preparations, and car companies are actively taking action, through measures such as upgrading super charging piles, adding mobile charging vehicles, and strengthening maintenance inspections, to escort green travel — State Grid Hebei Electric Power has optimized the layout of charging stations in densely trafficked areas in advance, equipped with high-power super charging equipment that can intelligently allocate power based on vehicle status to improve charging efficiency, and during holidays relies on intelligent inspection robot dogs to carry out special inspections, accurately troubleshooting equipment operation hazards; State Grid Hunan Electric Power has released a National Day highway charging guide, supporting real-time queries of charging station distribution and peak hours 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, etc. station by station...

In Shandong, on the Shenyang direction side of the Rizhao Service Area on the G15 Shenhai Expressway, vehicles line up orderly in front of the NIO battery swap station. In about 3 minutes, a vehicle completes the battery swap and continues its journey. This is an important refueling station for tourists from the Yangtze River Delta region 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 for high-demand stations. Instead of waiting until batteries are depleted before dispatching, we pre-position fully charged batteries and enable neighboring stations to mutually back each other up, balancing the battery reserves at each station." Wang Qinghua, energy service head of 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 is still an unavoidable reality test, and some netizens have complained about long queues and long waiting times at service area charging stations. The reporter noticed that some popular highway service area stations, in order to reduce the average charging time per vehicle, encourage car owners to vacate the parking space promptly when charging reaches 80% during peak hours. What is the basis for such an arrangement? Will it cause damage to the battery? "Due to the characteristics of electric vehicle lithium batteries, to ensure battery life and charging safety, charging is generally faster when the battery level is low, and after charging to about 80%, the system switches to constant voltage charging mode, and the speed significantly decreases." Qin Jian, director of the charging service center of 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 refueling 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 staggering refueling, trying to avoid daytime charging peaks and choosing nighttime or early morning refueling; 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 fewer queues. Relevant parties stated that they will further strengthen scheduling and monitoring, and continue to do a good job in ensuring new energy vehicle travel during the holiday.

In the long term, improving charging support service capacity is a long-term systematic task that requires joint efforts from all parties and sustained commitment. Looking to the future, more multi-dimensional efforts are needed in "weaving a dense network, improving efficiency, shoring up weak links, and optimizing services" — The "15th Five-Year Plan for New Power System Construction" deploys promoting the renewal and transformation of charging facilities in highway service areas, building an intercity network that effectively meets medium and long-distance travel needs; increasing the proportion of fast-charging facilities; by 2030, the total number of charging infrastructure will exceed 40 million, with about 300,000 high-power charging facilities, forming a charging service capacity supporting more than 110 million electric vehicles. The "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry" proposes continuously improving performance levels such as power battery safety, charging rate, low-temperature applicability, and cycle life; strengthening the shortcomings in rural charging facility construction, and continuously improving charging and battery swap service efficiency. The blueprint has been laid out, and it is expected that the charging network will become denser, refueling technology will continue to be tackled, and service guarantees will continue to improve, making green travel more relaxed and worry-free.