Average single-gun power stands at 50 kW, while policy targets aim for 1000 kW.

Who will bridge this 19-fold gap?

Shortly after the National Day holiday, China’s National Energy Administration released two sets of statistics. Viewed in isolation, the figures appear unremarkable; yet when cross-referenced, they reveal counter-intuitive conclusions.

From October 1 to 7, highway new-energy-vehicle charging across China hit 6.711 million sessions with a total charging volume of 163 million kWh. Average daily charging volume rose year-on-year by 51.42%. On October 1 alone, single-day charging volume peaked at 28.0469 million kWh, marking a 60.4% year-on-year increase and setting a new holiday single-day record. (Source: National Energy Administration of China)

More EVs are on the road and more charging events are taking place. Past experience would lead us to expect long charging queues alongside these rising numbers.

Yet for the same holiday period, while national new-energy-vehicle traffic climbed 35% year-on-year, the number of “extremely-busy service areas for daily EV charging” dropped by 17% year-on-year.

Higher charging throughput, yet less congestion?

Charging volume surged by half, but bottlenecks diminished.

This improvement stems not merely from building more charging stations, but from higher power capacity.

I. Reality: 50 kW. Target: 1000 kW

Let us compare the two key figures side by side.

By the end of August 2026, China operated 5.16 million public charging guns with an aggregate rated power of 262 million kW. This yields an average single-gun power of 50.69 kW, crossing the 50-kW threshold for the first time. (Source: National Energy Administration of China)

Policy targets envision a completely different magnitude.

In June 2026, eight provincial authorities in Guangdong issued the Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Electric-Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Guangdong Province. The document mandates accelerated deployment of ultra-fast chargers rated at 360 kW and above (480 kW and above is encouraged), as well as facilities ≥1000 kW. It targets “ultra-fast-charging coverage for every county” by the end of 2027.

At national level, targets are laid out in the joint-ministerial Notice on Promoting the Scientific Planning and Construction of High-Power Charging Infrastructure and the 15th-Five-Year Plan for New-Power-System Development. By end-2027, more than 100,000 high-power charging facilities are to be deployed nationwide. By 2030, total charging infrastructure shall exceed 40 million units, including approximately 300,000 high-power facilities to deliver charging service capacity for over 110 million electric vehicles.

There is roughly a 20-fold gap between today’s 50 kW and the 1000-kW target.

Adding more chargers cannot close this gap. The bottleneck lies within the distribution grid.

II. A 20-fold Power Increase – Beyond Distribution-Grid Capabilities

A 1000-kW single-gun rating is a device-level parameter. When deployed at a charging station, it becomes a complex power-engineering challenge.

A 10-gun megawatt-class charging station generates peak load exceeding 10 MW. This surpasses the hosting capacity of most urban distribution networks and highway service areas. Grid capacity expansion for a single station may cost tens of millions of RMB, with approval plus construction cycles spanning 1–2 years — far too slow for the roll-out of high-power charging networks.

Figure 1: Topology of PV-Storage-Charging Integrated Ultra-Fast-Charging Station

Under such conditions, PV-storage-charging integration is evolving from a demonstrative “nice-to-have” project into a rigid requirement.

Policy direction is equally clear. In April 2026, the National Energy Administration released dedicated guidance for PV-storage-charging integrated charging infrastructure, granting construction subsidies and electricity-price incentives for stations equipped with photovoltaic plus energy-storage systems. Within the weighting coefficients for county-level charging-swap-infrastructure gap-filling pilot programs, PV-storage-charging integrated projects are weighted ×2, while V2G and battery-swap stations are weighted ×3. Up to RMB 45 million in cumulative incentives are available across 59 pilot counties over three years.

Compliance thresholds are also tightening. Mandatory national charger-efficiency standard GB 46519-2025 will take effect November 1, 2026, setting the minimum-efficiency entry bar for integrated DC chargers at 94.5%. Full-scope CCC certification enforcement commenced August 1, 2026.

Market data corroborates this trend. According to industry analysts, 73% of newly-built megawatt-level ultra-fast-charging stations in 2026 will be fitted with energy-storage buffering systems, compared with merely 41% in 2025.

III. How Does a PV-Storage-Charging Integrated Ultra-Fast-Charging Station Operate?

The station adopts a 1000–1500 V high-voltage DC microgrid as its hub, forming a closed loop linking generation source, grid network, load, energy storage and control systems. It addresses three core challenges: insufficient grid capacity, unstable power output and stringent safety-protection requirements.

It comprises six functional modules:

· Source side: Photovoltaic power-generation subsystem — green-electricity supply for the station.

· Storage side: Energy-storage subsystem — core for power buffering and time-of-use arbitrage; a mandatory component for ultra-fast-charging stations.

· Grid side: DC bus and power-distribution system — main backbone for on-site energy transfer.

· Load side: Megawatt-class ultra-fast-charger subsystem — revenue-generating asset of the station.

· Grid-tie interface: Grid-connection and bidirectional-interaction system enabling bidirectional energy exchange with the utility grid.

· Control brain: EMS (Energy-Management System) for energy management and safety monitoring.

The operating principle is straightforward. During daytime, photovoltaic power prioritises feeding the ultra-fast chargers; surplus power is stored in energy storage. At off-peak night-time hours, the energy-storage system is charged at low electricity rates. During grid-demand peaks, energy storage, PV generation and the utility grid jointly deliver power to maintain full power output throughout ultra-fast-charging sessions. Meanwhile, surplus-electricity feed-in to the grid and V2G reverse power supply can be executed according to electricity-price signals and grid-dispatch orders to improve overall station revenue.

Figure 2: System Architecture of PV-Storage-Charging Integrated Ultra-Fast-Charging Station

Stable operation of the entire system hinges upon real-time measurement of current magnitude and direction at every link. All control strategies and protection mechanisms are built upon this foundational sensing data.

IV. Breaking Down End-to-End Sensing Requirements: How Many Current-Measurement Points Does One Station Require?

Industry estimates indicate that a PV-storage-charging integrated station configured with 10 × megawatt-class ultra-fast-charging guns plus 10 MWh energy-storage capacity requires 80–150 current sensors and 20–40 leakage-current sensors — several times the quantity deployed in conventional fast-charging stations of equivalent scale.

Performance requirements, however, present the real challenge. Sensors designed for low-power applications no longer suffice for megawatt-scale high-current scenarios. Four application domains are analysed below:

(1) Photovoltaic side

· Application nodes: String combiner boxes, MPPT controllers, inverter DC-side / AC-side circuits, inverter grid-tie side.

· Applicable products: Open-loop Hall-effect current sensors, closed-loop flux-gate current sensors, AC-DC leakage-current sensors.

· Core requirements: High stability over wide temperature range, mA-level leakage-current detection, strong electromagnetic-interference immunity, long-life maintenance-free operation.

· Core value: Enables precise MPPT control to maximise power-generation efficiency; permits accurate localisation of faults such as shading and PID-induced degradation; satisfies grid-code compliance and prevents unintended tripping.

(2) Energy-storage side

· Application nodes: Main circuits of battery clusters, BMS, bidirectional energy-storage PCS converters, DC/DC converters.

· Applicable products: High-precision closed-loop flux-gate current sensors, AC-DC leakage-current sensors.

· Core requirements: Bidirectional high-accuracy measurement, microsecond-scale response, high withstand-voltage ≥1500 V, long-lifetime design adapted to frequent charge-discharge cycles.

· Core value: Supports accurate SOC / SOH estimation to secure battery safety and service life; enables precise bidirectional charge-discharge control of PCS to maximise time-of-use arbitrage returns; provides early warning of insulation faults to mitigate thermal-runaway risks.

(3) Ultra-fast-charger side

· Application nodes: Ultra-fast-charger power modules, DC-output main circuits, charging-gun terminals, AC-DC input-output sides.

· Applicable products: High-range fast-response current sensors, AC-DC residual-current sensors.

· Core requirements: Ultra-wide measuring range, ultra-fast response ≤1.5 μs, high withstand-voltage ≥1500 V, stable performance across full temperature range, precise mA-level leakage-current detection.

· Core value: Guarantees full-power charging without power derating during megawatt-level ultra-fast-charging; recognises abnormal operating conditions within milliseconds and triggers protective actions, mitigating safety hazards and non-compliance risks.

(4) DC-bus and grid-tie side

· Application nodes: DC-bus main circuits, branch power-distribution circuits, grid-connection cabinet main circuits, high-voltage / low-voltage transformer sides.

· Applicable products: High-range current sensors, DC leakage-current sensors, bidirectional current sensors.

· Core requirements: Ultra-wide measuring range, high-voltage insulation, ultra-fast response, accurate bidirectional measurement.

· Core value: Supplies core measurement data for flexible station-wide power dispatch to maintain undiminished output under multi-gun concurrent-charging conditions; enables rapid fault localisation and isolation avoiding full-station shutdown; supports bidirectional energy metering.

Figure 3: End-to-End Current-Sensing Measurement-Point Diagram for PV-Storage-Charging Integrated Ultra-Fast-Charging Station

Three strict performance metrics defeat most conventional sensor solutions

These four sets of application requirements converge into three hard specifications — precisely the weak points of traditional sensor architectures.

Metric 1: Bidirectional accuracy with error accumulation

Energy-storage systems undergo numerous daily charge-discharge cycles. Measurement errors do not reset automatically but accumulate continuously. Minor zero-point drift of several millivolts translates, over dozens of days, into loss of usable capacity and diminished arbitrage revenue.

Metric 2: Linearity across wide measurement ranges

Station operating conditions can swing instantaneously from standby-mode tens of amperes up to megawatt-scale hundreds of amperes. Sensors must maintain linearity across the full operating range. Poor linearity causes protection thresholds to drift: protection may fail to trigger when required, or trigger spuriously. Both outcomes incur substantial costs.

Metric 3: High withstand-voltage capability plus wide-temperature-range performance

1000–1500 V DC buses demand adequate insulation withstand-voltage. Field-deployed outdoor stations experience ambient conditions from -40 °C up to 105 °C. Poor temperature-drift performance renders the above-mentioned two metrics meaningless.

When translated into technical-route comparison: linearity tightens from 0.5% down to 0.1%, while accuracy improves from 1% to 0.7%. In energy-storage applications featuring tens-of-thousands of charge-discharge cycles and cumulative measurement error, these fractional-percentage differences directly impact usable capacity and tangible economic returns.

V. Magtron’s End-to-End Sensing Solution

Magtron’s product portfolio covers every station node, from photovoltaic DC-side all the way to charging-gun terminals for ultra-fast-charging stations.

Accuracy directly translates into economic benefit. Our closed-loop flux-gate iFluxgate® sensors deliver 0.7% accuracy and 0.1% linearity. Within bidirectional charge-discharge scenarios, SOC estimation becomes more precise, usable capacity is better exploited, and tangible additional gains can be realised through time-of-use arbitrage.

Component-count reduction is also achievable. The open-loop-Hall MG series offers single-sensor coverage spanning ±10 A to ±180 A, with maximum range extended to ±450 A, maintaining stable performance across the full -40 °C to 105 °C operating-temperature window, eliminating the need for multi-sensor parallel-connection or range-switching schemes. The closed-loop-Hall MCSC-H series achieves maximum ±700 A (model MCSC-350 S/NP-H), suitable for high-current DC-bus and charger-power-module circuits. For ranges above 1500 A, multi-sensor parallel configurations or customised solutions are available.

For safety and compliance, our portfolio streamlines certification workflows. The ME2-F series integrates AFCI arc-fault-detection alongside current measurement. The MRSB series provides sensitive AC-DC leakage-current sensing. Full-link monitoring is implemented from PV DC-side circuits, through energy-storage battery clusters, all the way to charging-gun terminals, simplifying grid-connection and safety-standard certification procedures for end-equipment.

VI. Conclusion

Faster roll-out of high-power charging accelerates the transition of PV-storage-charging integration from an optional add-on to a mandatory requirement. At component level, this demands highly-accurate and highly-stable current and leakage-current measurement.

PV-storage-charging represents one of Magtron’s key strategic investment areas. If you are developing PV-storage-charging integrated ultra-fast-charging stations, energy-storage PCS equipment or high-power charging modules and require end-to-end current-and-leakage-current-sensing solutions, please contact us to obtain our selection guide and product samples.

References

[1] National Energy Administration of China: National EV-charging-infrastructure statistics for August 2026 (As of end-August 2026, total national charging infrastructure 24.223 million units; public charging facilities 5.16 million units, total rated power 262 million kW; average single-gun power ~50.69 kW), 2026-09-23.

[2] National Energy Administration of China: Highway EV-charging statistics for National Day holiday 2026 (00:00 Oct 1 – 24:00 Oct 7: 6.711 million charging sessions; total charging volume 163 million kWh; average-daily charging volume YoY +51.42%; single-day volume 28.0469 million kWh on Oct 1, YoY +60.4%), 2026-10.

[3] National Development and Reform Commission, National Energy Administration: 15th-Five-Year Plan for New-Power-System Development, 2026-08.

[4] Joint-ministerial Notice: Notice on Promoting the Scientific Planning and Construction of High-Power Charging Infrastructure; Three-Year-Doubling Action Plan for EV-Charging-Service Capacity (2025–2027) (Fa Gai Neng Yuan [2025] No. 1250).

[5] Eight Guangdong provincial authorities: Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Electric-Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Guangdong Province (Yue Fa Gai Neng Yuan Han [2026] No. 936), 2026-06-04.

[6] Ministry of Finance, MIIT, Ministry of Transport: Notice Concerning 2026 County-Level Charging-Swap-Infrastructure Gap-Filling Pilot-Project Application (Cai Ban Jian [2026] No. 8).

[7] National Energy Administration of China: Guiding Opinions on Accelerating Construction of PV-Storage-Charging Integrated Charging Infrastructure, 2026-04.

[8] GB 46519-2025 Minimum Energy-Efficiency Values and Energy-Efficiency Grades for Electric-Vehicle Power-Supply Equipment, effective 2026-11-01.

[9] SAMR Announcement No. 50 of 2024: Mandatory Product Certification (CCC) for EV power-supply equipment, full enforcement 2026-08-01.

[10] Industry-research-institute estimates on energy-storage-system penetration rate among megawatt-level ultra-fast-charging stations built in 2026.

[11] Zhejiang Magtron Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Current-Sensor Selection Manual 2026 V1.0.