(Yicai) May 6 -- Shenzhen, where China's biggest electric carmaker BYD is headquartered, has become the first Chinese city to have more supercharging stations than gas stands.

Shenzhen had 362 supercharging stations as of April 30, according to the latest data released by the southern city’s planner. It also became the first city in China to have more charging plugs than gasoline pumps.

Both are fresh milestones for China's new energy vehicle sector after the penetration rate of electric vehicles sold in the country exceeded half for the first time in the first half of last month.

Shenzhen, which has been at the forefront of promoting EVs and sustainable transportation, is actively building a charging network to support the rising number of EVs in the city.

Shenzhen kicked off building itself into a “supercharging city” last June and has set up a network across the city. Most of the supercharging stations are built on existing public charging station sites and are located in big commercial complexes, bus stops, and industrial parks. 

The charging speeds of superchargers are several times faster than fast-charging piles and 40 to 50 times faster than slow-charging ones, raising their importance in speeding up the popularization of new energy vehicles.

Shenzhen’s NEV charging capacity reached 670 million kilowatt-hours in the first quarter of this year, an 11 percent increase from a year earlier, according to data from the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of China Southern Power Grid.

The business community is also eager to promote such facilities. Last month, Huawei Digital Power allied with the first batch of 11 NEV makers, including BYD and startups Hozon Auto, Xpeng Motors, and Li Auto, as well as more than 500 online and offline charging operators and industry associations to form a “supercharging alliance." 

Huawei plans to build more than 100,000 of its SuperCharge piles around China this year, the Shenzhen-based company announced on April 24. The new piles will be installed via the joint efforts of Huawei and its clients and partners, the firm added.

The number of charging piles in China surged 69 percent to 7.95 million as of last October from a year ago, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The market share of NEVs nationwide will reach almost 40 percent this year, nearly 50 percent next year, and more than half in 2026, said Ouyang Minggao, vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association. By 2030, there will be around 100 million NEVs on the roads, with a market share of over 70 percent, he added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev