China's EV charging infrastructure expands rapidly in first seven months

BEIJING -- China's electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure has continued to expand swiftly, with the total number of charging points reaching 23.68 million by the end of July 2026, up 41.9 percent year-on-year, the National Energy Administration said on Monday.

Of this total, public charging facilities numbered 5.099 million, an increase of 21.3 percent from a year earlier.

Private charging facilities totaled 18.58 million units by the end of last month, surging 48.8 percent year-on-year.

The data, sourced from the national charging infrastructure monitoring and service platform, highlights the continued expansion of China's EV support network alongside a surge in EV sales.

China's new-energy vehicle (NEV) sales in July 2026 accounted for more than 60 percent of monthly new car sales for the first time, industry data showed earlier this month.

In July alone, NEV output and sales reached over 1.57 million and 1.56 million units, respectively, up a respective 26.8 percent and 23.7 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

As NEV sales continue to soar, China has been accelerating the improvement of its charging network to keep pace with growing demand.

In October 2025, China unveiled a three-year action plan to improve the country's EV charging infrastructure, aiming to establish a nationwide network of 28 million charging facilities, with public charging capacity surpassing 300 million kilowatts by the end of 2027.

China aims to increase the share of NEVs in its total vehicle fleet to 30 percent by 2030, according to an action plan for carbon peaking during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).