Economic Daily: New energy vehicles going to the countryside should be adapted to local conditions.

Electric vehicles going to the countryside, with the important consideration of unleashing rural consumption potential, has become an important lever to promote the linkage between supply and demand, investment and consumption, and to expand domestic demand. This policy serves as a link for green and low-carbon transformation, creating multiple strategic values. It not only improves the quality of life for farmers by reducing travel costs, but also drives new infrastructure such as charging and swapping facilities, intelligent network connection, etc. to extend to rural areas through industrial chain synergy, building an efficient and smooth green channel for the dual flow of urban and rural elements. The new round of electric vehicles going to the countryside will also combine policies such as vehicle purchase tax reduction and trade-in programs with county-level charging and swapping infrastructure pilot projects. For example, in Rugao, Jiangsu, more than 190 demonstration vehicles and charging stations were coordinated to go to the countryside, demonstrating the upgrade of policies from single-point promotion to systemic empowerment. However, it should be noted that the unique characteristics of the rural market pose certain challenges to the promotion of electric vehicles in rural areas. Currently, the layout of charging facilities tends to be focused more on county towns than on rural areas, leading to insufficient grid capacity and complicated land procedures in some areas, hindering the promotion of integrated "charging while driving" solutions in rural areas. Existing vehicle models have insufficient adaptability to rural bumpy roads, and the supply of production vehicles such as pickups and light trucks is relatively limited, thus failing to effectively meet the compound demand for transportation and production. In addition, there is a lag in the sinking of after-sales networks, with difficulties in maintaining the "three electric" systems and high costs, becoming important factors affecting consumer confidence. These shortcomings not only reflect the gap in urban and rural infrastructure but also highlight some structural contradictions between product and service supply.