During the May Day holiday in China, there was a surge in the number of people traveling, leading to difficulties in charging electric vehicles due to insufficient charging piles. Some car owners had to wait for hours at service areas on highways just to charge their vehicles, leading to arguments over charging spots.
The five-day May Day holiday saw many people traveling in electric vehicles. As the holiday unfolded, complaints from car owners queuing for charging at service areas along highways resurfaced on the internet. Many mentioned the need to wait in line for charging, with waiting times easily jumping to 1-2 hours.
A Henan netizen named “阿潔jay” filmed a video at 3:42 am on May 1st, showing the situation at a charging station at a service area.
He said that at the start of the May Day holiday, the charging stations were full, and there were cars queuing. “It’s impossible to charge, and it will be even more difficult to charge during the day. This is too exaggerated. In the future, service areas need to install a hundred charging piles.”
A Beijing netizen named “聰明鋼筆E” posted a video on May 2nd, saying that during the May Day holiday, some people queued at scenic spots while others cut in line at service areas.
She mentioned that during holidays, a battle for charging spots at highway service areas unfolds. Nowadays, highway service areas are even busier than scenic spots, with people sweating profusely, feeling restless, and electric car owners full of worries about when they can charge and when they can reach their destination.
Jiemian News reported that a Beijing car owner queuing to charge at Dingzhou Service Area in Hebei Province stated that he waited for nearly an hour before finally being able to charge his car.
This car owner mentioned that despite making a charging plan in advance, due to “charging anxiety,” he arrived at the service area earlier than scheduled. “Just as I entered the service area, I saw conflicts breaking out among car owners vying for charging spots.”
He said that after experiencing the “difficulty of highway charging,” he basically won’t consider driving an electric car on highways during holidays in the future.
With the development of the electric vehicle industry, more and more people in China are switching to electric vehicles. However, the pace of infrastructure construction has not kept up with the number of vehicles, resulting in the recurring problem of “highway charging difficulty” during long holidays such as May Day, National Day, and Chinese New Year.
Many car owners have pointed out that there is a shortage of charging piles at service areas, in addition to outdated and low-power charging facilities, frequent faulty piles, and high charges.
Before the traditional New Year, people encountered the problem of “dozens of electric cars fighting for one charging pile” on their way back home, causing widespread concern and discussion.
In one widely circulated video, dozens of electric cars were seen queuing at a charging station, with drivers cutting in line, intensifying the chaos at the scene. Such charging conditions are quite frustrating for electric car owners.
Similar incidents continue to occur. An automotive blogger released a video compilation of “physical conflicts over fighting for charging piles.” The video shows that due to competing for charging spots, many people splashed water, rolled on the ground, and engaged in physical conflicts, regardless of the gender of the other party…
The National Energy Administration of the People’s Republic of China responded to the issue of “highway charging difficulty” on April 26 this year, stating that by the end of 2023, a total of 21,000 charging piles had been installed along China’s highways; 6328 service areas across the country had charging facilities.
However, the utilization rate of these charging piles is not very high during regular times, making it difficult to meet the demands of electric vehicle owners during peak travel periods such as holidays, leading to common occurrences of queuing for charging and vying for spots.
In June last year, The Wire China reported that the average utilization rates in affluent cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen were all below 10%, with the distribution of charging piles being unreasonable. Studies have shown that their utilization rates are low and they are plagued by maintenance issues.