Features
26 Apr 23

Chinese EV recharging market is to feed 20m EVs by 2025

China's electric vehicle (EV) profile differs from other major players. Being number one in global EV sales, China is also the biggest manufacturer of new energy vehicles (NEVs). China grabbed 59% of the global EV market in 2022, while the Chinese EV industry exploded with 6.7 million units, representing 64% of the global volume, according to EV Volumes. 

The Chinese local market is no different than the global market. The Chinese EV consumer market saw year-on-year growth of 160% in 2021, reaching 3.52m unit sales. A year later, this spiked to 5.9m units, representing 59% of the global sales. The world's second most populated country with over 1.4bn people wants to take the NEV sales to 12 million by 2035, increasing the penetration rate by over 30% in the local market.  

Similar to other major EV markets, China is also trying to meet the charging infrastructure demand for the exploding number of EVs. According to Equal Ocean figures, the NEV and charging point ratio was 3:1 by the end of 2021. By the end of 2025, China plans to drop this ratio to 2.2:1 by reaching 14.66 charging points. 

By 2025 the Chinese EV recharging market is estimated to reach $29bn volume 2025, fastening the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) aim to reduce the EV-charging point ratio to 2:1 by 2030. The continuous development in the market shows that this will be easier for China to handle than in Europe or the US

Charging points spreading across China 

The view of the Chinese EV recharging market hints at a powerful industry behind it, as charging stations are popping up across the country like mushrooms. So much so that 65% of the global public EV charging points are in China as of August 2022, according to StockApps, the pace of installing charging stations has also jumped, as China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA) announced a total of 87,000 new charging stations installed in May 2022, a 60.5% increase year-on-year. According to EVCIPA figures, the total number of EV charging stations in China reached 1.419m units that month, with 613,000 being fast-charging Direct Current (DC) stations and 806,000 slow-charging Alternating Current (AC stations).

The top three provinces with the highest number of charging stations are: 

Guangdong 281,000 units
Shanghai 109,000 units
Jiangsu 107,000 units
Zhejiang 103,000 units
Beijing 102,000 units


The top five companies in the Chinese EV recharging market are:

Xingxing Charge 278,000 units
Special Call 277,000 units 
State Grid 196,000 units
Cloud Quick Charge 178,000 units
Xiaoju Charger 71,000 units


The top 15 companies in the EV recharging market operate 92.4% of all public charging stations, according to EVCIPA. With such progress, the power required to feed the EV charging infrastructure reached around 1.56bn kWh as of May 2022, increasing 140m kWh just in a month and 83.1% year-on-year basis. 

According to EV Markets, Chinese cities are far ahead in their charging capacities than the rest of the world, with 17 out of the 20 cities representing 35% of the global volume in China. The US has one, and Europe only two, by comparison. 

City          Global%
Shenzhen     7%
Shanghai     4%
Guangzhou     3%
Wuhan         3%
Beijing   2%


Shenzhen emerges as one of the best examples of e-Mobility, having over 20,000 EV buses and 24,000 taxis by 2021 and transforming around 80,000 logistics vehicles into EVs out of 300,000. 

The recipe for success

The robust electrification process is greening fleets in China at a fast pace. By the end of 2021, EVs accounted for 3% of China's total passenger fleet, a figure expected to reach 32% by 2030 and 77% by 2040, according to Mordor Intelligence. In January, China decided to equip 60% of the expressway area with charging stations, to meet the increasing demand of fleets. 

Most of the charging stations are spread out along the coastal cities in China, keeping the inner provinces dry of electricity. Therefore, the National Development and Reform Commission has called for rural development in January for companies to extend their network to rural areas

This is where the strong collaboration between OEMs and charging point operators comes in. The National Energy Administration (NEA) stated that over 3,000 companies are operating charging points in China as of 2022. According to the Ministry, the total amount of charging exceeded 40bn kWh in 2022, an 85% year-on-year growth. Following establishing a committee to set standards for charging facilities, NEA has so far finalized 31 national and 26 industry standards.  

Huaon Industrial Research Institute estimates the local charging market to reach $35.8bn volume by 2025, the year the charging infrastructure is expected to feed 20 million EVs. Intending to reach 40% EV sales in all vehicles by 2030, China is doing its homework well. 

Main image: Shutterstock

Authored by: Mufit Yilmaz Gokmen