Booming electric vehicle industry leads Guangdong's green development

GUANGZHOU - Southeast China's Guangdong province has seen a boom in electric vehicle charging services in the first quarter of this year, according to local electricity authorities.

The Guangdong branch of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. said Wednesday that, from January to March, its charging facilities provided more than 1 million instances of charging services for electric vehicles, increasing 456 percent year-on-year.

Electric vehicles charged a total of 30.3 million kWh of power in the first three months through the company's charging facilities, with a year-on-year growth of over 840 percent.

Xu Yanhao, an official of the power company attributed the soaring electricity consumption from electric vehicles to the increase of electric vehicles including buses, taxis, and cars which offer online ride-hailing services.

Another factor is the improvement of charging devices in the province, Xu said.

Statistics showed the number of users of a provincial charging service platform has rapidly increased. So far, there are around 108,000 registered users in total. Newly registered users in the first quarter increased 790 percent compared with the same period last year.

The surge in power consumption from electric vehicles not only reflects the vigorous growth of electric vehicles in Guangdong but also shows the province's pursuit of green development, Xu added.