--FILE--An electric vehicle (EV) is being recharged at a charging station of State Grid Corporation of China in Shanghai, China, 1 September 2017. By the end of 2017, China had more than 440, 000 charging piles, or power ports, for electric vehicles, meaning there are roughly four EVs for every pile in the country, according to a report by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance. Last week, the alliance's report showed that in 2017, there were roughly 214, 000 public charging piles. The number of private charging piles, which are installed when a car is purchased, totaled 232, 000. Given that there are 1.72 million EVs on the country's roads, the ratio of China's EVs to charging piles is 3.8 to 1. "I can easily find a charging pile in Beijing. However, it is still not very convenient when I drive to other cities or the suburbs, where there are fewer public charging piles, " said Wang Xiaoying, a 28-year-old Beijing citizen who has owned an EV for two and a half years.
