China will quadruple its annual output of new energy vehicles to two million by 2020, according to the country's technology minister.
Citing a government plan, Industry and Information Technology Minister Miao Wei said at a Beijing forum over the weekend that by 2025, at least one in every five cars sold in China will be a new energy model.
In 2016, China produced 517,000 new energy vehicles. The country has been the world's top seller of environmentally-friendly cars since 2015. Cumulative sales have exceeded one million, according to the ministry.
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New energy vehicles include battery-powered electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell cars.
In 2016, top Chinese electric carmakers BYD, Geely, and BAIC sold their models in more than 30 countries and regions around the world.
Miao said the government will continue to improve policies, boost research and development, invest in charging infrastructure construction and promote international cooperation to help the sector grow.
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In terms of charging infrastructure for new energy vehicles, China built over 100,000 public charging poles in 2016, ten times the figure in 2015. A comprehensive charging grid has taken shape in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
China witnessed a boom of electric vehicle investment in the past few years largely thanks to government incentives.
Instead of maintaining a universal incentive system, Miao said that subsidies will vary and favor best performing carmakers before the current financial assistance program ends in 2020. By then, a points-based system will be set up to guide the production of new energy vehicles.
(Source: Xinhua)
