BEIJING, April 16 -- New charging piles for electric vehicles (EVs) in China saw stable expansion in the first quarter of the year, industry data showed.

Some 632,000 charging piles were added in the January-March period, rising 28.6 percent from the same period in 2022, said the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance.

By the end of March, China had more than 5.84 million charging piles, surging 87.9 percent year on year.

During the first quarter, the retail sales of new energy vehicles jumped 22.4 percent year on year to 1.31 million units.