According to data recently released by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Association, the number of public charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) owned and operated by its members totaled 401,000 units as of May 2019, of which 229,000 were AC charging stations, 171,000 were DC and 500 AC/DC were integrated, representing a year on year increase of 50.5 percent and 9,658 units from the previous month. Between June 2018 and May 2019, the number of public charging stations for EVs showed an average monthly increase of some 11,205 units.

During the first five months of this year, charging facilities for EVs showed a year on year rise of 34.3 percent. As of the end of May, the number of facilities across the country totaled 976,000 units, up 71.0 percent.

The public charging infrastructure network has been densely established across China, with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin as well as Anhui, Guangdong, Hubei, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang provinces accounting for 75.3 percent of all such facilities.

The data showed a high level of concentration in terms of charging volume. The majority of the volume was recorded in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Zhejiang provinces. The most frequent users were electric buses, followed by passenger EVs, electric sanitation vehicles and electric taxis. The charging volume from the stations amounted to some 359 million kWh in May 2019, an increase of 3 million kWh from a month earlier.

In addition, the market for the operation of public charging facilities also showed a high level of concentration. According to available statistics, Chinese companies that currently operate at least 10,000 EV charging stations numbered seven:

Qingdao Teld New Energy Co., Ltd with 131,000 units

State Grid Corporation of China with 88,000 units

Star Charge with 83,000 units

EV Power with 21,000 units

AnYo Charging with 17,000 units

Potevio with 14,000 units; and

Shenzhen Car Energy Network with 10,000 units.

The seven operators together accounted for 90.8 percent of all stations under operation across the country.

According to data released by SMM, China recorded installation volume of power batteries in EVs of 5.68 GWh during the month of May 2019, a year-over-year increase of 22.3 percent and a month-over-month increase of 4.94 percent.

The data also showed that the country recorded installation volume of 3.75 GWh of ternary batteries for the month, down by 6.7 percent from the prior month. Installation volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 1.73 GWh, up 3.2 percent from a month ago. Ternary batteries accounted for 66.1 percent and lithium iron phosphate batteries followed with 30.5 percent of the install volume.