EV charging: what China and the Nordics reveal, and what France still has to solve

The electrification of mobility is now a tangible reality in France:

• +12.5% EV registrations over 2025, with one new car in five now electric [1],
• the number of charge points is rising (+20% in 2025 [2]),
• and usage is evolving (94% of EV owners rate their overall experience positively [3]).

The signals are encouraging.

But let us be clear-eyed: we are not yet at the level of the most mature markets, notably China and the Nordic countries. Of course, our markets are not comparable in every respect. And there is no silver bullet.

There are, however, clear lessons to be drawn — particularly on the alignment between infrastructure, usage, business models and public policy. Because behind the figures, it is above all structuring choices that make the difference.

And that is precisely where France can, and must, improve. With a key role to play for CPOs, well beyond simply deploying chargers.

Here is our analysis.

I- The network: a question of scale, coherence and incentives

a) China: the volume factor

China today has the largest charging infrastructure in the world. In 2025, it is estimated at around 20 million charge points, of which 5 million are public, with one of the best charger-to-EV ratios in the world. [4]

But the subject is not purely quantitative.

Deployment is massive in urban areas, strategic along motorway corridors and underpinned by a clear objective: more than 100,000 ultra-fast stations by 2027.

The result: a visible, legible and omnipresent network that sharply reduces range anxiety — still one of the main barriers to EV adoption today.

In China, charging a vehicle is not perceived as a constraint, but as an obvious step, no different from filling up.

These results are the fruit of strong synergy between manufacturers, infrastructure operators and ambitious industrial policy, with an openly stated target of 40% EV sales by 2030.

A resolutely proactive rollout, driven by strong incentives from the Chinese government and a clear strategy: dominance of the automotive market and of battery technologies, a push for reinforced energy sovereignty, and a response to major public-health issues linked to pollution.

Source: BYD, the leading Chinese player in the EV charging market

b) Nordic countries: the maturity factor

The Nordic countries do not rival Chinese volumes (demography and the number of vehicles on the road are simply not comparable), but they display exceptional maturity of use. In Norway, for example, 95.9% of new vehicle registrations in 2025 were fully electric [5].

The infrastructure there is designed for:

• uses that are already massively electrified,
• a high proportion of home and workplace charging,
• and a dense, reliable and fast public network on the main corridors.

The whole fits within a coherent strategy, driven by strong political will to electrify and supported by an energy mix largely built on renewables, hydropower in particular.

As early as 2017, Norway announced its intention to ensure that all cars sold in 2025 would be fully electric. A target that was not legally binding, but rested on a stable political trajectory combining:

• heavily dissuasive taxation on combustion engines,
• lasting advantages for electric vehicles,
• subsidies of up to 50% for infrastructure,
• and full-scale trials before scaling up.

Yusco - Finland 2025

In both cases (China and the Nordic countries), charging is treated as a strategic asset, supported by a stable long-term vision.

c) France: steady growth in an uncertain environment

France is progressing, with a gradual ramp-up:

• sustained growth in the number of charge points (+20% in 2025 [2]),
• uneven coverage across regions, with minimal coverage of motorway corridors (despite theoretically favourable ground — network resilience, generation capacity — compared with other European countries, notably the UK, the Netherlands and Spain).

That said, the challenge is no longer purely quantitative. It is now:

• qualitative: enabling everyone to charge where they need to, according to the time available, their budget and their vehicle;
• and operational: guaranteeing a high real availability rate for chargers while protecting against vandalism.

Beyond that, the European Union is still struggling to offer a framework that is legible and consistent enough to secure investment and allow the whole ecosystem to plan long term. This was the case, notably, when the European Commission relaxed the criteria for sales of new combustion vehicles from 2035. That relaxation risks widening an already existing gap with the competition on battery technology and in-vehicle intelligence.

II - Market structure: integration vs interoperability

a) China: an integrated model

The Chinese market rests on:

• large national CPOs (TELD, Star Charge, State Grid), often also manufacturers of their own charging hardware,
• automotive OEMs deploying their own networks (BYD),
• centralised SaaS platforms for supervision, payment and services (NIO, XPeng).

The result: little friction for the user, but a highly vertically integrated market with little room for independents. And above all a model that leaves little space for pure-play eMSPs: numerous cross-CPO agreements on data references and publication to OEMs, and payment centralised on WeChat (also used, among other things, for social networking).

b) Europe: specialisation and interoperability

In France as in the Nordic countries, the model rests on a clear separation of roles:

• equipment suppliers ensure the standardisation of their hardware (connectors: T2, CCS2; electrical standards: T2, CCS2; IEC 61851, ISO 15118, OCPP, etc.),
• automotive OEMs ensure their vehicles are compatible and take a reasonably coordinated approach: socket position, socket type, electrical standards and information exchange (for example ISO 15118 for Plug and Charge),
• CPOs finance, install and operate the infrastructure (for example Yusco),
• eMSPs manage customer access, billing and digital services (for example Le Plein, Chargemap),
• aggregators provide flexibility services,
• energy suppliers structure on-demand (spot) or predictable (fixed, block) tariffs,
• distribution networks allocate capacity to electric mobility.

This model is ambivalent: a source of technical and operational complexity, it nonetheless fosters interoperability, competition on services and the emergence of complementary standards (OCPI, OSCP and others).

The result: the chain is less integrated, but more resilient and more open. Provided the user experience stays smooth — which is not (yet) systematically the case.

III- Payment & user experience: simplicity and efficiency as priorities

a) China: mobile-first, no debate

In China, no cards, no card readers, little friction. Charging fits naturally into everyday habits:

• payment almost exclusively via WeChat or Alipay,
• QR codes everywhere (without the fraud),
• direct integration into manufacturers' apps.

On innovation and improving the customer experience, the country is testing at scale:

• battery swapping (battery exchange in 5 minutes),
• ultra-fast stations (from 120 kW to more than 1 MW),
• very-high-power chargers built around 800V battery architecture (integrated into most local vehicle ranges).

b) Nordic countries: pragmatism and standardisation

• bank card as standard (via card reader): per charger or via payment totems,
• simple local apps,
• with a gradual rollout of Plug and Charge (which removes the manual payment step) through a limited number of players such as Ionity (CPO) or Virta (eMSP and eMSP aggregator).

European regulation (AFIR) plays a structuring role here.

These countries are also running trials to optimise the user experience:

• experimental projects (electrified roads),
• innovations integrated directly into transport infrastructure.

c) France: coexisting models

Apps, RFID cards, card readers, QR codes, soon Plug and Charge… France accumulates solutions.

The real challenge for CPOs is no longer to add options, but to reduce complexity without causing operating costs to explode.

IV - In conclusion: the key role of CPOs in France

Yes, France lags behind global leaders on several aspects of electromobility. But that lag is also an opportunity: the opportunity to build a network genuinely suited to the market's needs, intelligently and sustainably.

A charging station on the Le Plein network, operated by Yusco

As a CPO, Yusco has a central role to:

• design coherent charging journeys, aligned with real usage and radically simplifying the user experience,
• test new technologies, drawing on lessons learned from more mature markets,
• carry weight in regulatory debates, in order to contribute to a stable, legible framework conducive to investment,
• improve the reliability and availability of infrastructure, a prerequisite for mass EV adoption,
• and above all, think "user" by concretely smoothing the customer journey with our privileged partner, Le Plein. How? Through an app connected to major retail brands, which removes the complexity of the ecosystem in favour of a simple, smooth and intuitive experience.

Charging is no longer merely a matter of infrastructure.

It is a lever of trust, of usage and of market transformation.

And it is now that France's ability to move from follower to European leader is being decided.

• [1] AAA Data
• [2] AVERE: November 2025 barometer
• [3] Enedis: behavioural survey of electric vehicle owners, October 2025
• [4] Xinhua, 2026
• [5] OFV