German car manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and BMW will jointly set up a fast-charging network for electric cars in China. The first stations should be opened next year.

In three years, at least a thousand stations with 7,000 charging points will be in operation, the car manufacturers announced on Thursday. The charging stations will be available for all car brands. Customers of the company’s own brands will have access to a series of features such as plug and charge, and online reservation.

The first locations will open next year. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are thus competing with Tesla, which already has more than 1,600 charging stations in China. The joint venture will procure electricity generated from renewable sources, wherever possible, they said.

The latest effort comes as new energy vehicles become a serious choice for car buyers in China. Deliveries of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in the country reached 7.28 million units from January to October this year, accounting for 30.4 percent of total new car sales in the period, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

China has the world’s largest charging network. There were 2.53 million public charging piles in the country by the end of October, with over 60,000 built in the same month, said the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance.