China’s State Grid says this year’s Spring Festival holiday will produce record electricity demand from electric vehicles as millions of drivers recharge for holiday travel. Its smart vehicle‑grid platform projects a single‑day peak of more than 34 million kilowatt‑hours for platform‑served EVs — up about 17% from last year — with highway charging alone topping 11 million kWh, a rise of more than 23%.
The busiest days for charging are expected to cluster around two travel waves, February 14–15 and February 21–23, mirroring the familiar ebb and flow of holiday migration. Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces are forecast to set new highs for highway charging, while the Changshen, Shenhai and Hukun expressways are likely to host the most heavily used fast‑charging piles.
Those numbers underline two concurrent trends: rapid growth in EV ownership and the maturation of a national fast‑charging network that is beginning to sustain long‑distance travel patterns. Higher single‑day charging volumes reflect both a larger fleet and greater highway usage, especially as automakers and local governments have pushed to expand charger density along major corridors.
For grid operators, the predictable holiday surges are useful for planning but still create operational challenges. Concentrated spikes in demand on specific days and routes require careful dispatching, dynamic pricing and sometimes local reinforcement, particularly in coastal and eastern provinces where vehicle ownership and travel intensity are highest.
The development matters beyond operational logistics. Rising holiday charging loads feed into broader energy and climate calculations: they increase electricity demand at times when thermal generation and interregional transfers are already scheduled for peak consumption, and they strengthen arguments for investment in smart charging, vehicle‑to‑grid capabilities and renewable integration to shore up capacity while limiting emissions.
Commercially, the surge is an opportunity for charging operators and automakers to monetise fast‑charging services and for State Grid to showcase its smart vehicle‑grid platform as a real‑time management tool. But it also highlights persistent geographic imbalances: even as coastal expressways fill with EVs, less trafficked routes and rural areas still lag behind in charger availability, a gap policymakers are trying to close with subsidies and targeted infrastructure programs.