[Anchor]

China, which boasts one of the highest electric vehicle penetration rates in the world, has suffered a massive EV charging chaos. Due to a sharp surge in travel for the National Day holiday, severe highway congestion and extreme gridlock at charging stations occurred.

Beijing, correspondent Han Sang-woo reports.

[Reporter]

An entire family is pushing a dead electric vehicle along the highway shoulder.

Scenes like this are not difficult to spot across various highways.

Drivers who barely managed to enter rest stop charging stations were handed waiting numbers like 99.

Complaints poured in, with some saying, "It took five hours just to wait for my turn to charge," and others stating their cars ran out of battery while waiting.

[EV Driver: I can't believe we even have to pull a number ticket. It's completely absurd.]

[EV Driver: Seriously, seriously, do not buy an electric vehicle. These are all people lined up to charge. We've already been waiting in line for over three hours. Who knows when our turn will come.]

At some charging stations, fights broke out between drivers trying to charge first, prompting police to be dispatched.

During the week-long National Day holiday commemorating the founding of China, which began on October 1, the total number of passenger trips across various transportation methods in China reached a staggering 2.1 billion.

With 90 percent of these travelers moving by vehicle, severe traffic jams and an electric vehicle charging crisis unfolded together.

In China, driving distances during the holidays typically exceed 1,000 kilometers, making at least one additional charge essential.

As the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, China is also at the forefront of EV adoption.

Last year, electric vehicles accounted for 53 percent of cars sold in the domestic market, reaching 13.2 million units, and more than 60 percent of new car sales this year are EVs.

Demand for EV charging has exploded accordingly, but when vehicles congregate at highway chargers during public holidays and long weekends, the infrastructure still fails to cope.

The Chinese government has deployed additional emergency charging equipment at highway rest stops where charging vehicles flock, and urged drivers to use less congested nighttime hours to charge in advance.

(Camera Reporter: Choi Duk-hyun, Video Editor: Kim Ho-jin, Video Source: Weibo @1024_ZhuanYuan)