China's Guizhou to build complete new energy industrial chain

Southwest China's Guizhou Province is targeting a 15-percent year-on-year value-added increase in its new energy vehicle (NEV) industry in 2024, according to the annual session of the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress on Wednesday.

It is also expected that the added value of the new-energy battery and materials industry in the province will register a 15 percent year-on-year growth in 2024.

Guizhou will give full play to industry-leading enterprises, including China's battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) and automaker BYD, to promote the upgrading of technologies and products of industrial chain enterprises, said Li Bingjun, governor of Guizhou.

Last year, a new energy power and energy storage battery manufacturing base with an annual production capacity of 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) constructed by CATL started operation in Guizhou. By 2025, Guizhou aims to develop into an important research and development (R&D) and production center for new energy power batteries and materials.

Based on an industrial foundation consisting of new-energy batteries and materials, Guizhou is seeking to build a complete industrial chain ranging from new-energy batteries and materials to NEVs as the final product.

Last year, Guizhou installed 6,000 new charging piles for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, among the new and upgraded public buses and taxis used across the province, NEVs accounted for 100 percent and 97.4 percent of the total, respectively.

In 2023, production and sales of NEVs in China exceeded 9.58 million and 9.49 million units, surging 35.8 percent and 37.9 percent year on year, respectively, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed. The exports of NEVs soared 77.6 percent to more than 1.2 million units in the past year.

The country will step up efforts in optimizing policies, boosting consumption and advancing high-quality development of the NEV sector, the National Development and Reform Commission said at a press conference earlier this month.