TIANJIN - Tianjin city in North China will build more charging poles to encourage the use of electric cars.

According to a plan, the number of charging poles in the city will exceed 90,000 by 2020 to meet the demand of about 160,000 electric cars.

While building the poles, priority will be given to public parking space, and governments and institutions should, in accordance with employee demand, install charging poles, the plan said.

Tianjin is one of the first pilot cities to encourage the use of electric cars. By the end of 2015, the city was home to 13,872 electric cars and more than 2,000 charging poles.

According to China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the country will build a nationwide charging-station network that will fulfill the power demands of 5 million electric vehicles by 2020.

By the end of October last year, China had 107,000 charging poles for electric vehicles, up 118 percent from a year ago.

Data from the National Energy Administration showed that China had 107,000 charging poles for electric vehicles by the end of October this year, up 118 percent from a year ago. Additionally, there are more than 170,000 private charging poles.