SHENZHEN, May 6 -- South China's tech hub Shenzhen had installed 362 supercharging facilities as of April 30, surpassing the number of petrol stations, local authorities have said.

The city's number of superchargers, capable of charging an electric vehicle to 80 percent or above within 10 minutes, is expected to reach 1,000 by the end of this year, according to Shenzhen's development and reform commission.

The city in Guangdong Province launched a drive to build a "city of superchargers" in June 2023 to facilitate its growing fleet of new energy vehicles (NEVs), which has exceeded 970,000 units by the end of 2023 to account for about 60 percent of the total vehicle number.

Most of the new superchargers are built upon existing public charging facilities and are distributed in large business complexes, bus stations and industrial parks, according to the commission.

China's NEV ownership level has continued to climb in recent years, with NEVs in use rising to 20.41 million by the end of 2023. The country's network of NEV charging facilities grew 65 percent year on year in 2023, reaching almost 8.6 million by the end of last year, according to the National Energy Administration.