China's largest electric charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) were put into service at the Universiade Center in Shenzhen's Longgang district yesterday, the People's Daily Online reported.
The first batch of electric charging facilities in Shenzhen includes two charging stations and 134 charging poles with a combined charging capacity of 2,480 kVA. This is another major move for the southern Chinese city to speed up its development of new energy vehicles.

The charging station at the Universiade Center is equipped with six express chargers that can provide charging to taxies, cars and buses. The station is large enough to serve 12 vehicles simultaneously. It is currently China's largest charging station in terms of area and investment.

The Hexie charging station, equipped with three express chargers, can accommodate six vehicles. According to the long-term plan, the combined charge capacity of the two charging stations can be expanded to 2,720 kVA.

The 134 charging poles are mainly located in public and community parking lots in each district of Shenzhen. Most of the charging stations use the slow charging mode which can facilitate drivers to recharge their cars during the off-peak period overnight.

In terms of charging time, the BYD E6 electric car, for example, needs only 2 hours to be charged under the express charging mode and can run up to 300 kilometers after one charging.

Shenzhen was selected in March as one of the first 13 pilot cities to promote new-energy vehicles. By 2012, more than 24,000 green vehicles will be used in Shenzhen, and the number will rise to 100,000 by 2015.