The activities of new energy vehicles going to the countryside in China have been carried out for many years, and the number of participating enterprises and models has been continuously expanded, effectively boosting consumption, and the countryside has become a new growth point of the new energy vehicle market. At the same time, some problems still exist, such as unsuitable vehicle models, lack of charging and replacing infrastructure in rural areas, and insufficient service outlets, which restrict the further release of rural new energy vehicle market potential.

New energy vehicles going to the countryside show results.

New energy is an important direction of green development and low-carbon transformation of global automobile industry, and it is also an important way of high-quality development of China's automobile industry.

'Rural areas have the natural advantages of using new energy vehicles. Expanding the popularization and application of new energy vehicles in rural areas can improve the safety level of rural traffic and promote the transformation and upgrading of infrastructure such as road network and power grid.' Guo Shougang, head of the Equipment Industry Division I of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.

In July, 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and the Energy Bureau jointly launched the activities of new energy vehicles going to the countryside. In the past two years, 14 special events have been held in Shandong, Jiangsu, Hainan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Guangxi and other eight provinces. Local governments have come up with valuable subsidy policies, and automobile companies have also introduced hundreds of new energy vehicle models that meet the needs of the rural market, and they have also introduced promotional measures such as price concessions and 'three-power lifetime warranty'.

Zhao Yong, deputy general manager of Kaiyi Automobile Yibin Sanfeng Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd. said that, taking the participating model 'Kaiyi Xuanjie ProEV' as an example, each car can enjoy a discount of 5,000 yuan.

'Overall, new energy vehicles are really affordable, which is much lower than the cost of fuel vehicles, and more suitable for rural residents.' Wei Ping, a rural resident in Xingwen County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province, heard that the preferential treatment for new energy vehicles going to the countryside is relatively strong. Recently, he ran several sales stores to see the car test run.

According to the data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from July to December 2020, 358,000 new energy vehicles were sold to the countryside, an increase of 80% year-on-year, significantly higher than the growth rate of the industry; In 2021, a total of 1.068 million new energy vehicles were sold in rural areas, a year-on-year increase of 169.2%, which was about 10% higher than the overall growth rate of the new energy vehicle market.

In 2022, a new round of new energy vehicles going to the countryside was launched in May. The first event was held in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province on June 17th. After that, a number of special events, exhibitions and corporate activities will be held in third-and fourth-tier cities and counties in Shanxi, Jilin, Zhejiang, Henan, Shandong and Sichuan.

The in-depth promotion of activities in the countryside has also boosted the sales growth of new energy vehicles. According to the data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the production and sales scale of new energy vehicles reached a new high in the first half of the year, with 2.661 million vehicles and 2.6 million vehicles completed respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times and a market penetration rate of 21.6%. In the first half of this year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in cities with unlimited purchase has increased from 11.2% in 2021 to 20.3%, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 100%.

According to the preliminary calculation of the Passenger Car Market Information Association, the retail sales of new energy vehicles will be around 450,000 in July, with a year-on-year increase of 102.5%. It is expected that the new energy vehicle market will continue to grow before the end of the year.

Xiang Funeng, an electric vehicle analyst at Nomura, China, predicts that the annual sales of new energy vehicles in China is expected to reach 5.5 million in 2022. Many institutions predict that in 2030, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 15 million, and the number of new energy vehicles will reach 80 million to 100 million.

The rural market needs to be further tapped.

While the activities of new energy vehicles going to the countryside have achieved results, there are still some constraints to further release the huge consumption potential in rural areas.

Some car companies hope that, on the basis of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, all localities can organize car companies to go to towns and villages for parades, and coordinate local media to increase publicity and promotion. At the same time, a large number of rural people have gone to work in cities, so it is not appropriate to simply understand 'going to the countryside' as 'selling to the countryside'. Publicity activities should also cover the vast number of migrant workers who work and live in cities.

At the same time, some rural residents report that they are more sensitive to the price, and quite a few people tend to buy new energy vehicles with a price of less than 70,000 yuan, and they also hope to give consideration to agriculture and goods pulling. At present, the models going to the countryside are mainly small mini-cars with a price of less than 100,000 yuan and a cruising range of less than 300 kilometers, and there are few models that meet the price expectations of rural residents and can give consideration to both people and goods.

'Rural consumers' psychological acceptance of' debt' loans to buy cars is still relatively low, which also affects the sales of rural models in rural areas.' The sales manager of a new energy vehicle 4S shop in Luzhou said that they can enjoy 36 installments of zero interest, and the maximum loan can be 89,000 yuan, but few people use it.

Even if new energy vehicles are sold out, the problem of difficult charging also plagues rural consumers. The reporter of the Economic Information Daily learned that at present, China's charging and replacing infrastructure is mainly concentrated in the core urban agglomerations such as the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Pearl River Delta, etc. The number of infrastructures along highways, urban and rural areas and tourist attractions is insufficient, and there are shortcomings in the layout of public charging piles in rural areas.

'220-volt household circuits can only be charged slowly, while public charging piles are basically fast charging piles, which can greatly facilitate travel.' Yang Bin, the owner of rural new energy in Gaoping District, Nanchong, said that if the charging and replacing infrastructure can be put in place, the effect of new energy vehicles going to the countryside will be better and the acceptance of rural consumers will be improved.

Once the vehicle is damaged, maintenance is also a big problem. Because of the difference between the power system of new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles, general maintenance shops and technicians can't repair it, and they lack supporting parts. However, many car companies' service outlets only stay at the city and county level, and rarely set up outlets in towns and villages.

The construction of charging facilities needs to be accelerated.

It is very important to further expand the promotion scale of new energy vehicles and speed up the construction of charging and replacing facilities.

According to the data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 1.3 million charging and replacing facilities were newly built in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 3.8 times.

Tian Yulong, spokesman and chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the recent press conference of the State Council Office that the next step will be to do a good job in a new round of activities of new energy vehicles going to the countryside, organize and implement a pilot project of full electrification of public facilities in cities, speed up the construction of charging and replacing facilities, and promote convenient measures such as information sharing and unified settlement, so as to coordinate the consumption of new energy vehicles, safe driving and the steady development of the whole industry.

The Ministry of Transport recently held a ministerial meeting to review the Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of Charging Infrastructure along the Highway. The meeting pointed out that accelerating the construction of charging infrastructure along highways and building a perfect charging infrastructure network along highways are important measures to improve the service capacity of highway infrastructure and solve the charging problem of new energy vehicles, and are concrete actions to implement the package of policies and measures of the State Council to stabilize the economy and stimulate the consumption potential of new energy vehicles.

The reporter of Economic Information Daily noticed that many enterprises are accelerating their layout. For example, by the end of June 2022, China Southern Power Grid Corporation has built nearly 75,000 charging guns, and plans to have more than 90,000 by the end of the year. Electricity consumption in the charging service industry increased by 80% in the first half of the year. During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, the company plans to invest 10 billion yuan and add 140,000 charging guns. By 2023, it will realize the full coverage of charging facilities in villages and towns in five southern provinces.

According to the opinions jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other 10 departments at the beginning of this year, by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China will have formed a moderately advanced, balanced, intelligent and efficient charging infrastructure system, which can meet the charging demand of more than 20 million electric vehicles.

Some institutions predict that by 2025, the demand for both public and private charging piles in China will exceed 5 million, and the demand for power stations will reach 25,000.

While speeding up the construction of charging and replacing facilities, some people in the industry and consumers suggest that the rural areas are vast, and consumers are relatively scattered. It is expensive for each car company to build its own service network. It is possible to explore the establishment of an alliance of new energy vehicles to the countryside, in which member car companies can jointly establish after-sales network, undertake after-sales service, share costs and expand service coverage.