The number of charging points for electric vehicles (EVs) in China grew at a rapid pace in 2022, new data showed Wednesday.

An electric vehicle gets charged via a robot at a charging station in Xiong'an New Area, north China's Hebei Province, March 18, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhu Xudong)

The country had 5.21 million charging points at the end of 2022, including over 2.59 million built in 2022, said Tian Yulong, chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The country had 1,973 battery swapping stations at the end of 2022, including 675 built in 2022, he said, adding that China had over 10,000 power battery recycling service outlets at the end of 2022.

The rapid growth in charging facilities is in line with the country's booming new energy vehicle (NEV) sector.

China sold about 6.89 million NEVs in 2022, up 93.4 percent year on year. NEV production soared 96.9 percent from a year earlier to about 7.06 million units.

The market share of NEVs in China's auto market reached 25.6 percent in 2022, up 12.1 percentage points from 2021.