BEIJING - China had installed 214,000 public charging piles for new energy vehicles (NEVs) by the end of 2017, the most worldwide, according to Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei.

The number marked an increase of 51 percent year on year, Miao told an industry forum Saturday.

While the country has seen rapid growth in newly built charging piles, the supply of such facilities still lags behind demand, Miao said.

An efficient business model needs to be developed to encourage companies to construct more charging facilities, he said.

China has been improving the infrastructure network to support the country's booming NEV industry. By 2020, it aims to install about 500,000 public NEV charging piles.

China is a global leader in the development of NEVs. Last year, a total of 777,000 NEVs were sold in the Chinese market, more than any other country, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

That marked an increase of 53.3 percent year on year, 0.3 percentage points faster than the level in 2016.

NEV output jumped 53.8 percent to 794,000 units last year.

The government expects NEV output and sales to hit 2 million annually by 2020, according to a plan released last year.