As the world’s largest electric vehicle market, it is not a surprise that China also has the most significant number of charging piles in the world. One pile refers to a single charging point that can only serve one vehicle at a time. The charging station consists of multiple charging piles. According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of the end of 2021, there is 2.617 million individual charging piles across the country, with 936,000 units added in 2021 alone. That is a 70.1% increase from 2020.
In 2021, the total electricity consumption for charging reached 11.15 billion kWh, a 58% increase from 2020. As the demand for electric vehicles increases, the charging market is expected to snowball. Between November and December 2021, the number of public charging piles increased by 55,000 units. That is a 42.1% increase compared to December 2020. Furthermore, the total electricity consumption increased by 89 million kWh reaching 1.171 billion kWh. That is a 42% increase compared to December 2020.
~40% of charging piles are public
Over 43% of the piles are public at 1.147 million units, with 340,000 units added in 2021. That is an 89.9% increase from 2020. Among them, 470,000 units were DC, 677,000 units were AC, and 589 units were AC/DC integrated. On average, China installed some 28,300 public piles each month in 2021.
Over 70% of China’s public charging infrastructures were based in Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Beijing, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei, Anhui, Henan, and Fujian regions. The highest charging electricity usage was concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Beijing regions. Buses, passenger cars, and sanitation vehicles consumed the most electricity, followed by taxis and other vehicle types.
There are 13 operators that each owned more than 10,000 units of public charging piles, including:
These 13 operators owned 92.9% of the public charging infrastructures, and the other operators owned the remaining 7.1%.
About China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance
The China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA) was established in October 2015 headquartered in Beijing, China. It is a non-profit social organization composed of major Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers, power grid companies, charging infrastructure manufacturers and operators, and third-party charging infrastructure agencies with core values based on “equality, collaboration, mutual benefit.”
EVCIPA promotes technological innovation and business collaboration and makes policy recommendations to help the Chinese Government manage and advance charging infrastructures more effectively. EVCIPA’s internal structure is broken down into four committees: charging operation service, charging standard facility implementation, charging facility intelligent network and statistics, and technical coordination committee.