(Yicai Global) March 9 -- China Southern Power Grid plans to invest CNY10 billion (USD1.6 billion) to construct 140,000 new energy vehicle charging piles  across five provinces in southern China by 2025 to meet rural demand, South China’s largest electric power firm said. So far, China Southern Power operates 4,000 charging stations in villages in Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan provinces as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and will build another 2,000 next year, it said yesterday.

There is growing demand for car charging in rural areas, but smaller companies are not willing to build charging facilities in these areas because of the limited number of NEVs, said Zou Yalan, vice president of Guangdong Association of Charging Facilities.

NEV ownership is shifting from China’s major cities to smaller third- and fourth-tier ones, according to a report by not-for-profit think tank ChinaEV100. There should be 159 such autos to every 1,000 people in the rural areas by 2030. The potential for electrification is huge, it added.

Guangdong, the Chinese province with the biggest economy, will be the first province in the country to have electric car charging facilities in all rural villages by the end of the first half, China Southern Power said, adding that it has built 80 percent of them. The company had 4,760 public charging stations as of January, with 41,200 charging outlets.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor