Key points in this article
From enough to good
The keyword for the next phase is quality, and Jinan examines how the 2023 State Council guidance frames a genuinely high-quality charging system for the whole country to build.
Issued as Guo Ban Fa No. 19 of 2023, it targets a broad, moderate, well-structured and functional network by the year 2030 across cities, counties and towns alike in China.
Intelligence and order
The guidance stresses smart, ordered charging to avoid uncontrolled concentrated loads hitting the grid, a point Jinan's own pilots already illustrate rather well in practice today.
As a national document, it sets the direction for the coming ten years of charging network development in cities like Jinan and far beyond its provincial borders and reach.
The guidance's lasting gift may be vocabulary, giving cities a shared language for quality so that future spending is judged on substance, and Jinan's local experiments can therefore inform a national standard rather than merely imitate one. A shared vocabulary of quality lets local trials inform national rules instead of merely imitating them after the fact.