China sees robust growth in EV charging facilities

The number of charging piles for electric vehicles (EV) in China had reached 11.884 million by the end of October this year, a significant year-on-year growth of 49.4 percent, industry data showed on Thursday.

From January to October, 3.288 million new charging piles were installed across China, an increase of 19.8 percent year on year, according to data released by China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance at the China Automobile Charging and Swapping Ecology Conference running from Wednesday to Friday in Taiyuan City of north China's Shanxi Province.

Thanks to the adoption of various favorable policies in recent years, China has established a quite complete automobile charging and swapping service network, with charging infrastructure covering residential areas, highway rest areas, areas along highways, public spaces and rural areas.

Another contributor to this expansion is the high production capacity and wide popularity of EVs in the country. With a month and a half left in the year, China's annual output of new-energy vehicles has already surpassed the 10-million-unit mark, making it the first country to achieve this milestone, according to data from industry group China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

"The current incremental ratio of charging piles to new energy vehicles is 1:2.6. The development of charging infrastructure has caught up with the rapid growth in new energy vehicles. The total number of existing charging piles is nearly 12 million, and the total number of new energy vehicles is over 28 million, so the facilities can meet the current charging needs," said Tong Zongqi, deputy secretary-general of the alliance, in an interview with China Central Television on the sidelines of the China Automobile Charging and Swapping Ecology Conference. In keeping with the rapid growth in EV charging facilities nationwide over recent years, the EV charging industrial chain has also kept improving, with breakthroughs made in the development of new technologies such as mobile charging, wireless charging and megawatt charging, with rapid progress achieved in smart charging.

At the conference on Thursday, the alliance announced the first batch of 44 five-star electric vehicle charging stations, which are built by 23 companies to improve the industrial ecology and better meet the increasingly differentiated demand from EV owners.

The meeting also stressed the importance of talent cultivation for further development of the industrial ecology.

In the future, China will encourage innovations of charging technology and business forms, make appropriately future-oriented efforts to step up the construction of charging networks in rural areas, and carry out high-power facility building with priority given to the busiest charging service areas.

China sees robust growth in EV charging facilities

As the new snow season starts in early winter in northeast China's Jilin Province, enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders can't wait to hit the trails, among whom is a six-year-old girl named Guo Ziyi.

Born and living in Shanghai, Guo hardly had a chance to experience ice-snow sports, but things took a surprising yet pleasant turn after the girl went back two years ago to the hometown of her father in northeast China's Jilin Province, a popular destination for such sports known for its long snow season.

While there, the child demonstrated her agile moves on the ski field and quickly fell in love with skiing.

"When skiing, I feel like wearing a pair of wings to fly freely over the snow," she said.

"She was thrilled when skiing for the first time. With a good sense for skiing, she made a move at that time that is difficult for other children to do. It made her feel a great sense of accomplishment, and since then she has fallen in love with skiing," said Li Yun, Guo's mother.

In order to support the kid, Guo's family decided to stay in Jilin during this snow season.

"I would practice the moves I'm familiar with at first and would then move on to harder moves," Guo said before practicing.

"Generally speaking, it is difficult for children to keep practicing skiing due to the cold weather and hard work in winter, which are highly challenging to children. However, she finds so much fun doing this that she doesn't consider such things difficult," Li said.

"When I fall but it doesn't hurt, I would get up immediately. If it hurts, I would cry just a bit before pulling myself up. If it really hurts, my dad would hold me up and slide down together with me," Guo said.

The girl spent up to 180 days a year skiing, clocking in 7,200 kilometers in total, which is equivalent to two round-trip trips from Shanghai to Jilin.

Last year, she won the championship of a snowboard competition in Changchun City, capital of the province.

"My first goal is to ski more comfortably and have more fun, and the second goal is to compete in more games, ski faster and win more medals," said the girl.

As the girl sets her sights on more glory in skiing, all her father wants is enduring happiness she gets playing the sport.

"As long as she keeps enjoying it going forward. That'd be enough for me," Guo's father said.

Six-year-old girl shows genius in skiing