BEIJING, April 14 -- The Chinese central government plans to allocate funding to support a pilot project to beef up charging facilities for new energy vehicles (NEVs) in counties.

"This aims to address the shortage of charging facilities in the nation's rural regions, optimize the environment for the consumption of NEVs, and tap into NEV consumption potential in rural regions," said Fu Jinling, a finance ministry official.

The pledged investment in charging facilities in rural regions is part of the nation's ongoing efforts to promote consumption, new investment, and low-carbon transition in accordance with an action plan of the government to push forward large-scale equipment upgrades and trade-ins of consumer goods. Such upgrades and trade-ins are estimated to generate consumption demand amounting to trillions of yuan each year.

Industrial data from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance revealed the addition of 716,000 charging piles in China during the January-March period in 2024, up 13.2 percent year on year, and confirmed an aggregate stock of around 9.31 million charging piles across the country by March this year.

However, it noted an imbalance -- with rural regions lagging far behind urban regions in terms of the availability of electric vehicle charging facilities.

At a press briefing earlier this week, Fu said the government would also offer subsidies directly to consumers who replace high-emission passenger vehicles with greener models.