JINAN, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Behind the wheel of her brand-new BYD, Zhao Jing completes her daily tasks with ease and as the day draws to a close, she makes a
"Life is so much easier with a car," said the store owner in Dongshu town of Ningyang County, east China's Shandong Province.
Zhao bought the car earlier this year, thanks to a county government subsidy that covers 8 percent of its price. "That was a great bargain! I was not prepared for such a discount."
For her new BYD car, priced at about 180,000 yuan (25,040 U.S. dollars), the government provided over 14,000 yuan.
Ningyang County has earmarked 10 million yuan for car purchase subsidies this year, said Zheng Peng, chief of the county's commerce bureau. "We launched the same promotion campaign last year to stimulate car purchases in rural villages, and as a result, more than 3,600 cars were sold in three months, a 12-fold increase from the same period of 2021."
The county is also building more charging stations, particularly in its rural areas, he said.
China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has experienced rapid development in recent years. The output and sales of NEVs rose to 3.79 million and 3.75 million units, respectively, in the first half of this year, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
Since the start of July, major carmakers like BYD and Great Wall Motors, as well as emerging companies such as XPeng, Li Auto and NIO, have all experienced steady growth in NEV production and sales, some even exceeding market expectations.
To narrow the rural-urban divide, China has intensified efforts to make cars -- particularly NEVs -- more affordable in smaller cities and the countryside. Over the past three years, more than 4.1 million car units have been sold to the rural market.
In Shouguang City, a major vegetable production base, many farming households now own cars. In some villages, one out of five families owns a car.
"We sold more than 700 cars last year, 40 percent to rural buyers," said a manager of one of the largest NEV sales outlets in Shouguang's city center.
China's vast countryside has a market potential of 500 billion yuan, estimates the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
China EV100, an electric vehicle industry think tank, predicts that China's rural population will have more than 70 million cars by 2030, averaging nearly 160 cars for every 1,000 people.
The National Development and Reform Commission released new measures in July to stabilize and expand the country's auto consumption, further promote the development of the NEV industry and build more charging facilities in small cities, townships and villages.
A new charging station recently opened in Hongfanchi township of Pingyin County, on the outskirts of Shandong's provincial capital Jinan. "It's only 2 km from my home," said Yao Minghui, a local resident who no longer has to drive more than 30 km to the nearest charging station in the county seat.
Charging infrastructure is one of the primary concerns for NEV buyers. Apart from building public charging stations, power companies are facilitating the installation of private charging piles for rural customers.
In the first half of this year, the State Grid Jinan Power Supply Company built 82 charging stations and installed 255 charging piles in the rural areas of Jinan, so that charging piles are available in every township, a company official said.
Meanwhile, 2,224 rural families have applied for private charging piles, the official said.
As NEVs become popular in the countryside, car owners can easily apply for the installation of private charging piles through an application on their mobile phones, said Zhang Yan, deputy manager of the State Gride Lanling Power Supply Company.
Easier access to charging facilities has drawn a growing number of tourists this summer to the farms and orchards in Yinjiayu Village in the city of Linyi.
The village, nestled in the Yimeng Mountains, was once considered an isolated area with limited access to traffic. The growing popularity of NEVs, however, has linked the village closer to the outside world.
"We have implemented a comprehensive action plan for charging facilities in towns and villages, bringing charging stations to rural areas to support eco-friendly transportation for the public," said Ren Yonghui, marketing director of State Grid's power supply company in Yishui County.
The county has preliminarily established a charging service system covering all townships, dispelling electric car owners' worries.
