What changed
China had 24.777 million electric-vehicle charging guns in operation by the end of September 2026, up 37.2% from a year earlier. Public chargers reached 5.207 million, while private chargers climbed to 19.570 million, growing much faster at 44.0%.
Public charging infrastructure carried 266 million kilowatts of rated total power, or about 51.10 kilowatts per gun on average. Private charging connections reached 167 million kilovolt-amperes.
Why it matters
The shape of China’s charging network is becoming clearer: most charging guns are private, while public chargers provide the higher-powered backbone for drivers away from home. That split matters because building more plugs is not the same as making every journey equally convenient.
The faster growth in private chargers points to charging being folded into homes and private parking spaces. Public infrastructure is expanding too, but at a slower pace and with substantially greater rated power per gun. In practical terms, the system is adding both overnight charging capacity and faster public access.
The broader outlook is positive for the physical infrastructure behind electric vehicles, but the numbers alone cannot show how busy the chargers are, where they are concentrated, or how many vehicles each one serves. Those details will determine whether this rapid expansion feels like abundant access or simply a very large network on paper.
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