According to a data from China Central Television’s morning news, it is estimated that 130 million passengers will be sent by railways, highways, waterways and civil aviation during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday in 2022, an increase of 31.7% over the same period in 2021 and a decrease of 69.2% over the same period in 2019 (before the epidemic). Among them, the cumulative traffic volume of national highways is expected to reach 239.46 million, an increase of about 9% over the same period in 2021 and a decrease of about 13% over the same period in 2019.
During the national day of 2021, shell finance and economics of Beijing News reported on the problem of electric vehicle charging in the expressway service area. After a lapse of four months, another long holiday is coming, and the situation of queuing and charging in the service area of electric vehicle Expressway seems to have improved.
Why do electric car owners seem to have no original “complaints”? What tips have they accumulated in high-speed traffic? Shell finance reporter communicated with 15 car owners who returned home during the Spring Festival, and they shared their “Spring Festival electric vehicle travel story”.
During the communication with the car owners, the reporter of shell finance and economics noted that the 15 car friends interviewed knew about the high-speed charging of electric vehicles during the National Day in 2021, and made a lot of preparations for it. Such as planning route travel and charging in advance, staggering travel, controlling the maximum speed and other methods, such as Eight Immortals crossing the sea.
there is a “lesson from the past”, and off peak travel may become the mainstream
\u3000\u3000 “My family is in Beijing. It’s less than 700km to go back to Fengxian County, Xuzhou, Shandong Province. It’s estimated that my car can run 400km at high speed in winter. It’s probably necessary to make up the electricity once in the middle of the journey. In order to avoid the charging queue during the journey, my husband and I set out at more than 4 a.m. on the 28th day of the lunar new year. The two people changed their cars and arrived at the plain service area at more than 7 a.m. to charge the electricity once. At that time, there were few people and 12 people charged quickly The pile is expected to be enough. When charging, we can also squint in the car for a while. We can make up the electricity in two hours and the car is warm. We can drive a little less and get home smoothly in the second half. ” Ms. Liu, the owner of GAC aion s plus, told reporters, “in fact, we may be able to leave later next time. We didn’t see many charged electric cars on the road when we finished charging.”
Among the 15 riders, half chose to travel off peak. Most of them chose to start before New Year’s Eve, and the departure time was relatively early.
Due to off peak travel, some riders charge and supplement energy all the way smoothly. Drawing provided by riders
“Those who celebrate the festival know it’s hard to go. I choose to travel off peak.” Mr. Li is a citizen of Guangzhou. He drives his car Weima W6 to Guangxi during the Spring Festival. Mr. Li, who started on January 25 and returned on February 3, saw only one queue during his 2300km journey. At that time, there were four cars waiting in line for charging, so he chose the next service area.
“Now charging in Guangdong is very convenient. Even if we line up at the high-speed charging station, we can basically find the charging place when we get off the high-speed.” Mr. Li Beihai, a financial reporter, told the Beijing News.
In addition to off peak travel, planning the route and charging location in advance is also the focus of motorists. Some expressways are very popular, but the charging piles along the way are relatively limited, and the family can’t travel off peak due to various factors. Some electric vehicle owners choose to charge at high speed.
Mr. Hu, the owner of a Xiaopeng P7, told reporters that because his lover’s work is relatively special, he must return to Beijing on the sixth day of the ninth lunar month and arrive at the unit on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. He and his wife paid attention to the charging stations around the expressway when they set out, and even got off the expressway in person on their way home to investigate the relevant locations. “My family lives in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. It’s about 480km from Beijing to Taiyuan. We drive at high speed and turn on the air conditioner. If there is still a traffic jam, the car may not meet the requirements and must be charged halfway. We have a look. There are charging stations down the high-speed service area along the way. Leave some electricity to drive there. Even if the first station has a space occupation, we can find the second one.”
policy support has been strengthened, and more charging and power exchange facilities have been put into use
According to the data of the passenger Association, the sales volume of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) vehicles is expected to exceed 6 million in 2022, and the penetration rate will reach about 22%. With the rapid growth of electric vehicles, relevant state departments and consumers have a clearer understanding of electric vehicles.
China’s electric vehicle related support policies have been launched continuously. It is reported that in view of the charging peak of new energy vehicles on the Spring Festival Expressway reflected by the State Grid electric vehicle service company before the festival, all parts of the country are also deployed in advance during the Spring Festival holiday.
For example, all 28 newly-built charging stations in Guangdong were put into operation during the Spring Festival. All these charging stations are equipped with 160kW fast charging piles, and each station can charge four new energy vehicles at the same time; In the Kaiyang Yangmao section of Shenhai expressway, according to the large traffic flow, the relevant departments also increased the configuration of charging piles according to the share of 4 piles in each station.
In addition, according to the public data of China charging alliance, in December 2021, the member units of the alliance reported a total of 1.147 million public charging piles, an increase of 55000 units month on month, an increase of 42.1% year-on-year. A large number of charging piles have also been continuously rolled out all over the country to facilitate energy supplement for new energy vehicle users.
In addition to the continuous construction of charging stations, the replacement station has also developed rapidly and brought great convenience to users. Among the 15 respondents, there are 5 users who are more comfortable returning from the Spring Festival because of the layout of power stations on the expressway. They are also the owners of Weilai cars.
According to the data, the 223 high-speed power exchange stations of Weilai automobile provided 37700 services to users during the Spring Festival. The power exchange times in places such as Rugao service area of Shenyang Haikou expressway, Baige service area of Beijing Tibet Expressway and Dongyang service area of Zhuyong Expressway exceeded 500. A Weilai es8 owner told shell finance reporters that through Weilai’s power exchange service, he rushed to Sanya all the way from Shijiazhuang and is still playing around Sanya.
Some electric vehicles are charged in the service area. Drawing provided by riders
Another ES6 owner, Mr. Zheng, also gained a good travel experience through power change and charging. Mr. Zheng started the return journey from Longyan to Jiaxing on February 4, 1050km. He started his journey at 8:30 in the morning. After driving 350km, he chose to charge in Guihu service area of Fuzhou North toll station. The charging time is about 40 minutes and the energy supplement is 60.5kwh.
After lunch in Guihu service area, he and his family continued to set out. About 2 hours and 40 minutes later, he arrived at the Cangnan service area to replace the power station and completed the battery replacement. “The contrast between changing electricity on the highway is really too strong. When you change the electricity and see that other brands of cars are still charging, you can’t help but feel some happiness.” Mr. Zheng told the shell finance reporter of the Beijing News.
After that, Mr. Zheng replaced the battery in Qingjiang service area. After 14 hours, he arrived in Jiaxing community at 10:38 p.m. In the future, with the continuous increase of battery capacity and the spread of replacement power stations and charging stations, car owners are fully likely to enjoy the experience of long-distance travel on holidays in the future.
However, some car owners said that when he returned to Shanghai from Lishui, Zhejiang Province, he passed through Dongyang service area, and the waiting time of queuing for power change also reached 40 minutes. There is still a certain pressure on power change stations in some sections and peak periods.
due to reduced congestion or reduced traffic flow, multi-party cooperation is still needed to solve the difficulty of queuing
Although most of the riders interviewed by the shell finance reporter avoided congestion and charging queue, some users still encountered the dilemma of queuing.
A Tesla Model 3 owner, Mr. Li, told the shell finance reporter that he had experienced an “embarrassing journey” on Wu Shenzhen Expressway Company Limited(600548) from Changsha to Shenzhen. In Wu Shenzhen Expressway Company Limited(600548) , he passed Chaling service area and Yanling service area successively, but the charging situation of the two service areas was not optimistic. In order not to queue up for charging, he had to get off the highway and look for charging stations in the surrounding counties and cities. This trip makes Mr. Li feel a little more pressure on holiday travel: “if you travel, you’d better stagger the peak. It’s impossible to stagger the peak. Plan the charging route and be prepared. You must not toss yourself like this next time.”
Although some users are still plagued by queuing due to high-speed energy supplement, the energy supplement experience of electric vehicle users during the Spring Festival seems to be better than that during the national day. In this regard, automotive analyst Zhang Xiang told shell finance reporters that after the National Day charging problem was widely reported, users’ travel consideration was more comprehensive, and the government and operators also optimized it.
Zhang Xiang said that according to the previous data forecast of the Ministry of public security, the average daily flow of expressways will reach 48 million during the national day of 2021, with a total of about 336 million on the 7th. The traffic volume during the Spring Festival in 2022 is about 240 million. This eases the load of the charging station compared with that during the national day.
Zhang Hong, Secretary General of new energy vehicles branch of China Automobile Circulation Association, told shell finance reporters that new energy vehicles increased by 200% year-on-year in 2021 and the annual ownership increased by three times year-on-year, but the charging equipment did not grow synchronously. Therefore, whether it is due to the large traffic flow during the holidays or the cold climate in the north, there are still some problems such as few charging facilities, slow charging, and non universal facilities and payment means. It can be said that the growth of new energy vehicle charging facilities has not kept up with the growth of new energy vehicle sales. The shortage of chips will be further alleviated this year, the sales volume still has room to rise, and the imbalance between supply and demand of charging facilities may be more serious.
Zhang Hong said that to solve the charging difficulty, the core is to speed up the construction of charging facilities for new energy vehicles. Zhang Hong introduced that this link has been raised to the height of the new infrastructure of the 14th five year plan by the State Council. He firmly believes that the central government will have specific implementation arrangements worth looking forward to, whether in terms of policy preference or increasing investment.
Zhang Hong believes that local governments have great potential in the construction of charging facilities, such as increasing the subsidy policy for the construction of charging piles and promoting charging facility manufacturers or car enterprises to speed up the popularization of charging facilities; For vehicle enterprises that have built their own brand charging or power exchange facilities around the expressway, they can consider comprehensively, open their doors and accept vehicle charging of other brands, so as to alleviate the pressure of insufficient charging facilities.
For the scenario of high-speed energy replenishment, Zhang Hong mentioned that relevant enterprises can actively layout high-power fast charging to reduce the waiting time of users for energy replenishment; On the other hand, strengthening the construction of service area can improve the experience of users waiting for energy supplement while generating income. In addition, more reward and punishment measures can be added to the problems such as the occupation of oil vehicles and the failure to update and repair the charging pile in time, so as to promote the relevant enterprises to improve the service quality.
In addition, Zhang Hong suggested multi-party cooperation, adopting intelligent solutions, and striving to generalize the payment means, i.e. app, so that all vehicles can find charging piles and complete charging without difference, so as to avoid the situation that car owners pile up in the high-speed service area because they don’t know the surrounding conditions.
