March 22 news: A man in China, in an effort to save time charging, risked driving the wrong way on a highway ramp to reach a service station and swap his electric vehicle's battery.

Thankfully, the dangerous move was avoided by oncoming traffic, but the man was heavily fined by highway patrol.

According to Zhejiang traffic police, the man, surnamed Chen, was driving his electric car to a meeting in Hangzhou when his vehicle suddenly alerted him to low battery.

Chen, familiar with the highway, knew there was a battery swap station for his car brand at a service station about 20 kilometers ahead. Thinking a five-minute battery swap was more convenient than a regular charge, Chen decided to press on.

However, as Chen neared his intended service station, he encountered a traffic jam of cars waiting to enter the ramp.

Unable to change lanes in time, Chen missed the service station entrance. By this point, the car's remaining range was down to just 1 kilometer, and there were no other battery swap stations ahead.

In a moment of panic, Mr. Chen made an extremely dangerous decision: he drove in reverse into a service area. Fortunately, a vehicle exiting the service area spotted Mr. Chen's reverse maneuver in time and took evasive action, preventing a potentially serious traffic accident.

Subsequently, the highway police severely reprimanded and criticized Mr. Chen. They also fined him 200 CNY and deducted 12 points from his license, as per the law, for his illegal act of reversing on the highway's ramp.

The police emphasize that reversing on highways poses a grave threat to road safety and should never be attempted under any circumstances.