China steps up efforts to build car-charging poles

Wang Menghui, minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at the annual EV100 Forum in early January that charging facilities should be treated as important infrastructure in urban areas.

"Together with relevant departments, we will speed up efforts to draft supportive policies and stimulating mechanisms to fulfill and improve planning about charging infrastructure," Wang said.

The details about this year's plan have not been released, but Dong Yang, president of the China Electric Vehicle charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, said local authorities have been told to stimulate charging infrastructure.

China is the world's largest new energy vehicle market, with their sales soaring 61.7 percent year on year to total 1.25 million last year amid the sluggish overall car market.

The country is also home to the largest charging network for new energy vehicles and it is expected that 600,000 charging poles are to be built this year, 80 percent of them private.

By the end of this year, the total number of charging poles available in the country will reach 1.4 million, according to the newspaper.