It is learned that in recent years, self-driving on highways has gradually become the main mode of travel, especially during major holidays, when passenger car traffic on highways accounts for more than 90% of the total traffic. Among them, new energy vehicles are also growing rapidly. During the just-concluded May Day holiday, the proportion of new energy vehicles on highways exceeded 18%.

In recent years, the Ministry of Transport has continued to promote the upgrading and renovation of service facilities, strengthened the construction of barrier-free facilities, mother-and-child rooms, and "Drivers' Homes" in service areas, and especially vigorously promoted the construction of charging infrastructure and strengthened the charging service guarantee capabilities during major holidays.

Li Ying said that in order to further improve the service quality of service areas and provide better protection for the public's self-driving travel, the Ministry of Transport recently issued the "Highway Service Area Service Quality Rating Method". The "Rating Method" focuses on improving the service quality of service areas and promoting the high-quality development of highway service areas across the country.

It is understood that the service area service quality grade assessment content consists of two parts: grade configuration indicators and level evaluation indicators.The configuration level indicators are mainly objective evaluations of the service area infrastructure configuration, such as the service area area, the number of parking spaces, and the settings of charging stations, gas stations, vehicle maintenance stations, "drivers' homes", and mother-and-child rooms.Level evaluation indicators mainly evaluate the management level and service quality of service areas, such as the cleanliness of public toilets, order in public areas, quality of catering and retail services, and automobile service levels.

Li Ying said that in the next step, the Ministry of Transport will speed up the formulation of relevant standards for the assessment of service quality levels in highway service areas, focus on key areas of public travel concern such as charging infrastructure construction, holiday service guarantees, and warm service from truck drivers, organize and carry out service area service quality assessment work, and give full play to the guiding role of the assessment work, so as to promote reform, construction, and management through assessment, and continuously improve the service level of highways.

Li Ying, spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport, also mentioned at the press conference:A total of 35,000 charging piles and about 51,000 charging parking spaces have been built across the country, and new energy city buses account for 77.6%.

▲Li Ying, spokesperson of the Ministry of Transport and deputy director of the Policy Research Office

Li Ying introduced that the transportation industry and the energy industry are both national strategic and basic industries, and are also important areas for reducing carbon emissions, reducing pollution, and expanding green growth. Promoting the deep integration and development of the transportation and energy industries is of great strategic significance for ensuring national energy security, actively and steadily promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and accelerating the construction of a strong transportation country and a new energy system.

The Ministry of Transport has always attached great importance to the integrated development of transportation and energy, promoted the construction of a number of transportation and energy integration projects, and continuously improved the clean energy supply system for transportation. The installed capacity of wind, solar and other clean energy in the national transportation infrastructure has exceeded 890,000 kilowatts, a total of 35,000 charging piles and about 51,000 charging parking spaces have been built, new energy city buses account for 77.6%, more than 430 clean energy ships have been built and are under construction, and the national railway electrification rate has reached 75.3%.

Recently, ten departments including the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Development of Transportation and Energy." Li Ying said that the opinion is based on the current reality of the integrated development of transportation and energy, focusing on eight aspects such as the development and utilization of clean energy in transportation infrastructure, the promotion of new energy and clean energy transportation equipment, and the supply guarantee of green fuel for transportation. It proposes 25 key tasks and deploys and implements a number of iconic and leading major transportation and energy integration projects. It will definitely promote major adjustments to the energy consumption structure in the transportation field, form new scenarios, new models, and new formats for renewable energy substitution, and comprehensively improve the overall benefits of transportation and energy infrastructure.

In the next step, the Ministry of Transport will focus on five aspects to promote the effective development of transportation and energy integration.

First, strengthen planning coordination.Promote the interaction between transportation and energy infrastructure planning, carry out network planning of highway and waterway charging (replacement) stations, strengthen the coordinated layout with power grid planning, and improve the level of local clean energy security. Guide local governments to carry out research on transportation and energy integration planning, and clarify the scale of development and utilization, construction sequence and network layout of new energy and clean energy along the infrastructure.

The second is to strengthen policy coordination.We will implement a series of special actions, including the "Start to Build" and "Ride the Wind" actions for transportation infrastructure, the low-carbon transformation and development of transportation equipment, the charging (replacement) infrastructure layout network action, and the green fuel supply acceleration action for transportation. We will promote the participation of clean energy projects in transportation infrastructure in electricity market transactions, and study the green electricity direct connection policy within the scope of transportation infrastructure roads.

The third is to expand and deepen application scenarios.Make full use of the surrounding land of service areas, toll stations, maintenance areas, monitoring centers, etc. along the highway to promote the development and utilization of clean energy nearby. Accelerate the construction of a number of (near) zero-carbon hubs, ports, etc. Strengthen the construction of charging (replacement) and other energy replenishment facilities. Accelerate the construction of high-power charging infrastructure along the highway and create a number of intelligent transformation projects for two-way charging and discharging facilities.

Fourth, promote the application of new energy equipment.Continue to promote the application of new energy vehicles in urban public transportation, taxis, postal express, urban distribution, ports, airports and other fields, and promote the large-scale application of new energy heavy-duty trucks. Vigorously support the development of new energy and clean energy powered ships, vigorously promote energy-saving transformation and low-carbon upgrading of high-energy-consuming and high-emission railway locomotives and vehicles, and regularly use sustainable aviation fuels at airports such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing.

Fifth, increase scientific and technological research and development.Relying on national scientific research platforms and major national science and technology projects, we will establish a transportation and energy integration technology and equipment research and development platform, promote cross-industry, cross-department, and cross-regional collaborative innovation, and carry out key technology research such as flexible interconnection between transportation energy systems and energy networks, large-capacity solid-state batteries, and megawatt-level super-fast charging. We will promote the development and utilization of clean energy for transportation infrastructure, the formulation and revision of relevant standards for electric heavy trucks, hydrogen heavy trucks, and electric ships, and improve safety, energy conservation, and environmental protection standards.