The New Energy Vehicle Countryside Activity ignites the spark of green travel across the vast rural landscapes. This policy-driven, demand-focused initiative not only redefines the rural transportation ecosystem but also serves as a model for integrating rural revitalization with the "dual carbon" strategy.

On May 24, 2014, during an inspection of the SAIC Group, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the development of new energy vehicles is crucial for China's transition from a large automotive country to a powerful one. This directive set the course for China's automotive industry, infusing it with unprecedented momentum.

Over the past decade, China's new energy vehicle industry has achieved remarkable progress under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, alongside the collective efforts of automotive industry professionals. From 2014, when China produced just 75,000 new energy vehicles, to 2024, production surged to 12.888 million units, with new energy vehicle sales accounting for 40.9% of total new vehicle sales.

As a vital part of China's consumer market, rural areas have garnered significant attention from the Party and the country. With the comprehensive implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, rural residents' living standards have steadily improved, and cars have become a common sight in households. With a population of nearly 500 million, rural areas offer a vast market for new energy vehicles. To address gaps in the promotion and application of new energy vehicles in rural areas and better meet rural residents' needs for convenient and green travel, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has collaborated with relevant departments to organize new energy vehicle countryside activities since 2020.

Five years of cultivation, from pilot projects to full-scale implementation

Over the past five years, more than 10 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, including Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hainan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Guangxi, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Shanxi, have hosted 29 special events and hundreds of parades and exhibitions. Nine batches of over 400 new energy vehicle models tailored for rural areas have been released, with nearly 15 million rural models sold, rapidly unfolding a green narrative of coordinated urban and rural development.

Ideology precedes action, and rural consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicles requires a cognitive leap from "strangeness" to "identity". As new energy vehicle countryside activities deepen, the organization and content of these activities have continuously evolved. Over the years, organizers have conducted targeted offline activities such as centralized exhibitions and parades based on regional conditions and consumption patterns, established multiple "cloud" exhibition and sales platforms, and intensified publicity on car usage guides and green, low-carbon travel, achieving seamless online-offline collaboration to dispel the misconception that "new energy vehicles are not durable".

Secondly, through collaborative efforts, the construction of supporting facilities, sales services, and maintenance networks has continually strengthened, optimizing the usage environment. In recent years, the activity has organized power enterprises and charging infrastructure companies to annually collaborate on rural outreach, enhancing charging infrastructure. It encourages local governments, automotive companies, financial institutions, and maintenance enterprises to further expand service networks and increase preferential promotions and financial support, making rural residents eager to buy and confident to use new energy vehicles.

Concurrently, the activity encourages enterprises to intensify the development of suitable models through in-depth research on rural new energy vehicle usage characteristics, further enriching product offerings. It strengthens the selection of countryside activity models, incorporating more reputable and versatile models to better cater to rural residents' consumption needs. For instance, models like the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV have become rural market sensations due to their high cost-effectiveness and practicality, affirming the necessity of precise supply-side efforts.

This activity not only taps into rural consumption potential but also becomes a pivotal lever for integrating rural revitalization with the "dual carbon" goals. As of 2024, sales of new energy vehicle countryside models have maintained rapid growth for five consecutive years. With collective efforts, it is anticipated that charging and battery swapping infrastructure will achieve "full township coverage" by 2026. Behind this transformation lies both the wisdom of top-level design and the vitality of corporate innovation, embodying the aspirations of hundreds of millions of farmers for a better life.

Activating the dual cycle of rural consumption and industrial upgrading

New energy vehicles represent a new fulcrum for unleashing rural consumption potential and fostering domestic demand growth. Automobile consumption is substantial, has ample potential, and exerts a robust industrial driving effect, making it a crucial lever for economic stabilization. Data shows that from 2020 to 2024, sales of countryside models grew at annual rates of 80%, 169%, 87%, 123%, and 31.86% respectively, far surpassing the national automotive market's average growth rate. The rural market has emerged as a new engine for new energy vehicle growth.

The launch of new energy vehicle countryside activities also bridges poverty alleviation with rural revitalization. Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, emphasized at the 2020 launch ceremony: "The countryside activity should steer the upgradation of rural residents' travel modes and contribute to the construction of beautiful villages." As China's economy and society advance, people's living standards improve, and the automotive industry undergoes profound transformations, new energy vehicle countryside activities acquire deeper connotations and meanings, contributing significantly to rural revitalization and the achievement of dual carbon goals.

In his speech at the Shandong event, Zhou Naixiang, Governor of Shandong Province, stated: "As a major hub for new energy vehicle production and consumption, Shandong has expanded the urban and rural consumer market through countryside activities, infusing new vitality into rural revitalization." Shandong Province is developing a hundred-billion-level new energy vehicle industrial base in Jinan and Qingdao and enhancing supporting capabilities through projects with BYD and CATL. Additionally, Shandong is harnessing rural consumption potential through the "promote vehicles with charging piles" strategy, combined with new energy vehicle promotion and used car circulation system optimization, aiming for over 1 million new energy vehicles owned by Shandong-registered rural residents by 2025.

Green travel is also reshaping the rural energy structure. "Each new energy vehicle reduces carbon emissions by an average of 1.2 tons annually, with rural areas achieving annual emission reductions exceeding 12 million tons, equivalent to planting 600 million trees," said Meng Wei, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, citing data to demonstrate the ecological benefits of countryside activities while interpreting the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure to Better Support New Energy Vehicles Going to the Countryside and Rural Revitalization." In wind and solar-rich areas like Zhangjiakou, Hebei, new energy vehicles are coordinated with distributed photovoltaic and energy storage systems, increasing rural energy self-sufficiency to 40% and realizing a closed loop of "green electricity travel".

"New energy vehicles have made picking up kids, transporting goods, and self-driving tours the norm for new farmers, with an average annual income increase of over 3,000 yuan per person," said Bijie City, Guizhou Province, through implementing the "New Energy Driving Training Plan," which has helped 50,000 farmers acquire new skills and broaden employment avenues. Simultaneously, new energy vehicle countryside activities have driven the extension of the battery recycling, charging infrastructure, and maintenance service industrial chains to counties, further invigorating the county economy. Taking Shandong's Linyi as an example, the establishment of a new energy vehicle industrial park has created tens of thousands of jobs, forming an integrated "production-sales-service" ecosystem. The proliferation of new energy logistics vehicles has accelerated rural e-commerce and cold chain logistics, reducing the transportation loss rate of fresh agricultural products by 15%.

Infrastructure construction: The "charging network" weaves green arteries

Addressing the "charging difficulties" pain point, the activity has annually organized power enterprises and charging infrastructure companies to collaborate on rural outreach, enhancing charging infrastructure. The State Grid, local governments, and charging and battery swapping enterprises have actively partnered to promote a three-tiered "county-township-village" charging network. The countryside activity has effectively spurred charging infrastructure development and improved the user experience of new energy vehicles in rural areas.

Tong Zongqi, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the "Charging Alliance"), stated that in 2024, the Charging Alliance organized charging infrastructure countryside activities in four regions: Xiong'an, Changzhou, Lankao, and Taiyuan. With the further penetration of the new energy vehicle market and the support of relevant policies to address gaps from the Ministry of Finance, new energy charging and battery swapping infrastructure has swiftly developed in counties.

Data reveals that in 2024, China's counties had 437,706 public charging piles, accounting for 13.16% of the national total; among these, 155,948 were newly added. In comparison, the national increment of public charging piles in 2024 was 853,000, with counties experiencing an 18.3% growth rate in public charging piles, surpassing the national average. Through special debt support, power grid transformation, smart charging, and other technical means, the number of public charging piles in counties has increased more than tenfold in five years.

"Both local state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are actively planning and deploying charging infrastructure in counties across various scenarios such as villages, communities, and tourist attractions," said Tong Zongqi. "For instance, by the end of September 2024, Hubei Province had achieved charging pile coverage in all 7,000 new rural villages."

Another example is Fujian. In March 2024, the Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of a High-Quality Charging Infrastructure System in Fujian Province," proposing to "accelerate the construction of a rural public charging facility system centered on counties, focusing on townships, and based in villages." Adhering to the "appropriately advanced and balanced layout" principle, Fujian has continuously enhanced charging facility coverage across various scenarios, intensified the promotion of charging facility construction in counties and townships, and cumulatively established 3,116 public charging piles in 502 townships, with 174 townships adopting the nation's first "integrated warehouse" charging piles.

Looking ahead to 2025, Tong Zongqi noted that China's charging infrastructure countryside activities will enter a comprehensive critical phase. The next step involves constructing a widely accessible, intelligent, efficient, safe, and convenient rural charging network through policy guidance, technological innovation, and multi-party collaboration, injecting new momentum into new energy vehicle countryside activities and rural revitalization.

"As smart electric vehicles roam the countryside, green mountains and clear waters are enlivened by zero-carbon travel. This transformation adds a vivid footnote to Chinese-style modernization," said Xin Guobin. In the five years since new energy vehicles entered rural areas, they have not only redefined the rural travel ecosystem but also explored a new path for coordinated urban and rural development., With technological policy iteration optimization, and cognitive upgrading, "seeing mountains, seeing waters,Auto and Review driving" new magazine energy. vehicles Stay" tuned will for undoubtedly more become updates a.