China's Highway EV Charging Demand Jumps More Than 50% Over National Day Holiday

China’s highway charging network faced its busiest holiday stretch yet, as a rapidly growing electric vehicle fleet pushed demand sharply higher during the National Day break. According to figures released by the National Energy Administration (NEA), new energy vehicles drew 163 million kWh of electricity from highway charging points between October 1 and 7, working out to a daily average of 23.26 million kWh — an increase of 51.42% compared with the same window a year earlier.

The opening day set the tone for the week, with 28.05 million kWh consumed on October 1 alone. That marked a 60.40% rise over the first day of the previous year’s holiday and stood as the highest single-day total ever recorded during a holiday period. Across the full seven days, drivers completed 6.711 million charging sessions. Activity was especially concentrated early on: the first three days accounted for 2.9686 million sessions, averaging 989,500 per day, up 48.41% year-on-year, while electricity use in that span reached 71.62 million kWh — a daily average of 23.87 million kWh, or 49.39% more than a year ago.

The comparison with last year underscores how quickly the picture is changing. During the 2025 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which ran from October 1 to 8, highway charging volume totaled 123 million kWh, averaging 15.36 million kWh per day — well below this year’s pace. The NEA attributed the heavier load to intensifying demand, but said service-area facilities generally coped without major disruption, allowing long-distance electric travel to proceed.

To prepare, the NEA had instructed regional authorities to finish equipment inspections and maintenance ahead of the break, position extra mobile charging units and tighten traffic management around charging bays. The numbers reflect growth on both sides of the equation. The data covers 62,700 highway charging facilities monitored by China’s national charging infrastructure platform, up from 48,400 a year earlier. By the end of June 2026, service areas nationwide had installed 85,400 charging connectors, delivering near-complete coverage apart from some exceptionally cold and high-altitude areas. The Ministry of Transport has said it aims to add more than 10,000 connectors at highway service areas during 2026, at least a quarter of them high-power units.

Vehicle adoption is advancing just as fast. China had 48.97 million NEVs on the road at the end of June 2026, equal to 13.19% of the total automobile fleet, per the Ministry of Public Security. Newly registered NEVs in the first half of the year came to 5.195 million, or 49.42% of all new vehicle registrations. With charging corridors now stretching across the country and roughly half of new car buyers choosing electrified models, holiday charging peaks are likely to keep climbing in the years ahead.