Charging stations for new energy vehicles on Chinese highways handled record charging volume during the nine-day Spring Festival holiday from Feb 15 to 23 this year, as NEV travel continued to grow, according to the National Energy Administration.

The holiday sees the world's largest annual migration as millions travel for family reunions, and most cross-regional trips in the country are by car. With the booming popularity of NEVs in recent years, China has bolstered its charging infrastructure in preparation for peak charging times.

Statistical analysis of 53,300 highway charging piles included in the national charging facility monitoring and service platform shows that during the holiday period, the charging volume of electric vehicles on highways reached 149.7675 million kilowatt-hours, with an average daily charging volume of 16.6408 million kilowatt-hours, an increase of 52.01 percent compared to the volume during the Spring Festival last year.

Data from the State Grid Smart Vehicle Networking Platform shows that during the holiday, the top five provinces in terms of expressway charging volume were Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan. While the Changchun-Shenzhen Highway registered the highest charging volume on the platform among all expressways.