China’s electric vehicle infrastructure falls short, as Lunar New Year holiday woes of EV drivers in Hainan and elsewhere showed

China is the world’s biggest electric vehicle producer and one province, Hainan, plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, but there are problems

Electric car sales in China have grown faster than its network of charging stations, and this led to long lines and stranded drivers over Lunar New Year holiday

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An aerial view of vehicles queuing for ferries to Hainan Island, China, on February 19, 2024. A limit on electric vehicles on ferries led to many drivers abandoning their vehicles on the island after Lunar New Year. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 7:15pm, 8 Mar 2024

Hainan is the only province in China to have a date, 2030, by which the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines will be banned.

What China calls new energy vehicles (NEV), a term that encompasses fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids, may have accounted for more than 35 per cent of vehicle sales in 2023, but there is as yet no date for a nationwide switch to the less polluting machines.

Hainan’s leadership was probably bittersweet knowledge for the hundreds of drivers of NEVs who couldn’t leave the island at the end of the Lunar New Year holiday. The number of NEVs ferries can carry to and from the province is limited to 10 per cent of the total vehicles on board, up to a maximum of 18 per sailing, to reduce the risk of fire.

In the rush to leave, many drivers abandoned their NEVs, and carmakers including Geely, Neta and GAC offered to ship them back to owners as soon as possible, free of charge.

Cars wait to board a car ferry in Haikou, Hainan province, China. Electric vehicles can comprise a maximum of 10 per cent of cars on each ferry to and from Hainan Island. Photo: Getty Images

Despite China’s push towards electric transport, there are still worries about fire – fears that were stoked by a blaze in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on February 23 that left 15 dead and is believed to have been started by an e-bike battery.