Henan is the third largest province in China by population, with 98.83 million people at the end of 2021.

Central China's Henan aims to see all highway service areas equipped with charging piles by the end of 2022, making the province one of the top tier regions in terms of charging facility networks, according to a government document.

An action plan released today by several departments, including the Henan Provincial Department of Transportation, on promoting charging infrastructure along highways mentions the goal and says the province will also have basic charging facilities in the service areas of 14 general trunk roads by the end of 2023.

By the end of 2025, the charging infrastructure in service areas of highways and ordinary trunk roads in Henan will become denser and get further optimized, according to the plan.

By 2025, the province will gain coverage of charging piles along rural roads, basically forming a charging infrastructure network capable of meeting people's travel needs, the plan says.

Henan is the third largest province in China by population size, with 98.83 million people at the end of 2021, behind Guangdong's 127 million and Shandong's 102 million.

Notably, Henan is one of the less economically developed regions in China, with a large number of residents born in the province heading to work in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Efforts to optimize the construction of charging infrastructure will not only help residents in the province's experience with electric vehicles, but will also make it easier for those working in other regions to return to their hometowns during important holiday seasons.

New charging stations along highways and around key scenic spots will be able to charge at least eight electric vehicles at the same time. Charging stations along ordinary inter-city roads will meet the charging needs of at least 4 vehicles at the same time, according to the program.

Henan will accelerate the construction of fast-charging stations in highway service areas, and the new charging piles will all be fast-charging piles.

The province will also convert the original slow-charging facilities into fast-charging piles, upgrade the charging power of the original fast-charging piles, and gradually make all charging guns more than 80 kW.

By the end of August, China had 1.62 million public charging piles, including 702,000 DC piles and 921,000 AC piles, according to data released earlier this month by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA).

Guangdong is the region with the most public charging piles at 356,000, with Jiangsu in second at 115,000 and Shanghai in third with 112,000. Henan came in ninth with 61,000.

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