An ultrafast charging station for electric vehicles (EV), which can charge 20 cars all at once and add over 200 kilometers of battery life to the cars within eight minutes, started operation on Monday in southeast China's Ningde City, Fujian Province, China Media Group reported.

It's the country's first standardized smart EV charging station that integrates charging piles with an energy storage system powered by a direct current (DC) microgrid, the report said.

Covering an area of 2,100 square meters, the charging station has a megawatt-level energy storage system. With solar panels on its roof, it can use solar energy and store it to charge the cars.

It can also conduct a "physical examination" of the batteries being charged and send the battery performance test results to the car owners, providing them with accurate and scientific battery maintenance suggestions, the report said.

Such charging stations offer fast and safe charging solutions and battery performance check services for EVs in urban areas, where more and more EVs are on the road.

In the next five years, 50 such charging stations will be built in the downtown area of Ningde, with 12 to be completed by the end of next year, said Xu Hongchun, head of the Economic Development Bureau of the Dongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone in Ningde City.

Its developer, Nebula, said the company will promote the charging stations in large and medium-sized cities across China.  

At the end of September, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 11.49 million, accounting for about half of the world's total, according to data from China's Ministry of Public Security.