ZCZC
BCN-01
AUTOMOBILE-CHINA-ECONOMY
China to target quarter of vehicle sales to be electric by 2025
BEIJING, Dec 3, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – China should adopt a plan that will see
electric vehicles make up a quarter of all autos sold in the country in six
years’ time, the industry ministry said Tuesday, as the sector struggles with
falling sales.
A draft blueprint for the development of the “new energy vehicle” sector —
which includes hybrids and fully-electric vehicles — comes after the
government withdrew subsidies for carmakers earlier this year.
China is the world’s largest new energy vehicle market, but sales of
electric motors plummeted 34 percent on-year in September, according to the
China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s draft proposal said
China should seek to ensure one in four of all vehicles sold in 2025 were
either hybrids or fully-electric vehicles.
The measures are partly to ensure the country meets its air pollution
targets, and to reduce Beijing’s dependence on imported oil.
China would also continue to develop electric vehicle battery technologies,
improve infrastructure for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and driverless cars,
it said.
The draft proposal, which includes guidelines for the development of the
new energy vehicle sector from 2021 to 2035, is open for public feedback
until December 9.
A previous state target set in 2017 had called for 20 percent of cars sold
to be electric vehicles by 2020, but the draft released Tuesday gave no
indication whether China was on track to meet that goal.
Fuelled by rising incomes and government sales incentives, China is the
golden goose upon which the global automotive industry has staked its future.
But after years of strong growth, car sales fell last year for the first
time since the 1990s, hit by a slowing economy, US trade tensions and a
Chinese crackdown on shady credit practices that has crimped car-financing
channels.
Passenger vehicles sales in China have now fallen for 15 consecutive
months, according to the CAAM.
The government had earlier said it was planning to impose quotas requiring
carmakers to maintain a certain percentage of new energy vehicles in their
Chinese production.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1515 hrs