(JW Insights) Oct 26 -- China's state-owned electric utility corporation State Grid Corporation is accelerating efforts to expand the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure as the country's new energy vehicle (NEV) sector experiences robust growth, reported China Daily on October 26.

China, now home to more than 16 million new energy vehicles, is seeing a stronger domestic uptrend in the installation of charging piles as the nation's NEV sector booms amid its nationwide green transformation.

State Grid Corp's Laiwu branch in Jinan, Shandong Province, is among the local power suppliers that are revving up efforts to facilitate the charging process for electric vehicles.

The company has invested in and completed the construction of 75 charging stations and 280 piles in Laiwu, covering five high-speed service centers and 18 townships, with its "10-minute charging circles" established to provide EV owners with a worry-free power supply, it said.

What's happening in Laiwu is taking place all over the country, reflected by a high proportion of expressway service zones equipped with charging stations — 89.5 percent among the total nationwide by the end of June, the Ministry of Transport said.

According to the State Grid, the total charging amount recorded among such service zones nationwide in just the first six days of the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday reached 29.2 million kWh, a historic high for the period.

Innovation is also integral to boosting power use efficiency. According to State Grid's Jiangsu unit, its vehicle-grid integration network demonstration zone, the largest in China, has begun operations recently in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The network can draw electricity to the smart grid from 50 NEVs simultaneously.

According to a report by CITIC Securities, the ratio of existing NEVs to charging piles as of the end of 2022 is 2.5:1. As the nation is expected to have a total of 64.2 million NEVs by 2030, and with a target ratio of 1:1 by that time, there is great market potential in the sector in the years to come, according to the China Daily report.

(Gao J/Yuan XY)