Suzhou, a city in southern China, to build 200,000 EV charging stations by 2025

Suzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province, has announced its plan to promote the EV industry. The city intends to build 200,000 charging stations by 2025, with 155,000 private charging stations, 36,000 public charging stations, and 9,000 special-purposed charging stations. The layout will meet the needs of about 380,000 electric vehicles, draw investments of  6 billion yuan ( $902.73 million), and drive up the production value of the EV industry by 84.34 billion yuan and the production value of the power battery industry by 32.82 billion yuan.

The city has the highest car penetration rate among cities with more than 2 million cars. According to statistics from 2020, on average, the population to car ratio is about 2.4:1. It is also one of the cities in China to quickly embrace EVs. The number of EVs registered in Suzhou increased from close to 10,000 in 2016 to 57,600 by 2020. By the end of 2020, Suzhou has about 22,000 charging facilities, including 13,500 private charging stations, 5,900 public charging stations, and 2,600 million special charging stations. Due to lacking in quantity and uneven distribution, EV charging stations in Suzhou could not keep up with the growth rate of EV ownership. 

Suzhou’s plan not only meets the demands of car owners but also coincides with China’s green initiatives. China’s State Council published development plans for green energy-powered vehicles as early as 2012. A notice by the General Office of the State Council in 2015 on building charging stations further establishes related policies for EV charging, enabling subsidies for the industry.

Chongqing, a city in southwest China, has also published development plans for increasing EV charging stations, aiming to build 60,000 public stations and 180,000 private ones.

Suzhou’s plan will likely benefit local enterprises. The city houses many car makers and factory plants such as Higer, Chery, and GW Motor, battery makers such as Anjie, as well as multinational programs such as Spotlight, an EV production base jointly launched by BMW and GW Motor.

Cover image by Michael Marais on Unsplash.