China is joining France and Britain in announcing plans to end sales of gasoline and diesel cars.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media yesterday cited a Cabinet official as saying.
The reports gave no possible target date, but Beijing is stepping up pressure on automakers to accelerate development of electrics.
China is the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold, giving any policy changes outsize importance for the global industry.
Chinese Deputy Minister Industry and Information Technology Xin Guobin (辛國彬) told an auto industry forum on Saturday that the ministry has begun “research on formulating a timetable to stop production and sales of traditional energy vehicles,” Xinhua news agency and the Chinese Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily reported.
France and Britain announced in July they will stop sales of gasoline and diesel automobiles by 2040 as part of efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
Communist leaders also want to curb China’s growing appetite for imported oil and see electric cars as a promising industry in which their country can take an early lead.
China passed the US last year as the biggest electric car market. Sales of electrics and gasoline-electric hybrids rose 50 percent over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, or 40 percent of global demand. US sales totaled 159,620.
The reports of Xin’s comments in Tianjin gave no other details about electric car policy, but cited him as saying Beijing plans to “elevate new energy vehicles to a new strategic level.”
Beijing has supported electric development with billions of dollars in research subsidies and incentives to buyers, but is switching to a quota system that will shift the financial burden to automakers.
Under the proposed quotas, electric and hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles would have to make up 8 percent of each automaker’s output next year, 10 percent in 2019 and 12 percent in 2020.
Automakers that fail to meet their target could buy credits from competitors that have a surplus.
Beijing has ordered state-owned Chinese power companies to speed up installation of charging stations to increase the appeal of electrics.
Chinese automaker BYD Auto Co (比亞迪汽車), a unit of battery maker BYD Ltd (比亞迪), is the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker by number of units sold.
It sells gasoline-electric hybrid sedans and SUVs in China and markets all-electric taxis and buses in the US, Europe and Latin America as well as in China.
Volvo Cars Corp, owned by China’s Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集團), announced plans this year to make electric cars in China for global sale starting in 2019.
General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co and others have announced they are launching or looking at joint ventures with Chinese partners to develop and manufacture electric vehicles in China.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS