New energy vehicles sales in China from January to June just over 3500 units

New energy vehicles in China are still in their infancy, the most recent statistics from the China Passenger Car Association suggest. According the CPCA statistics, which appeared in a Shanghai Securities News report today, total production and sales numbers for Chinese new energy vehicle in the first six months of 2012 totaled 3,167 and 3,525 units, respectively. Pure electrics accounted for 3,021 and 3,444 of the respective figures, with the remainder of the amounts being plug-in electric hybrids.

"The [market] for new energy vehicles in China is still within the beginning stages," Deputy Ministry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Su Bo said. According to Mr. Su's calculations, there are currently only around 4,000 new energy vehicles driven in the country, with just three-quarters of those being for household use.

According to the recently released the Energy-Saving and New Energy Automotive Industry Development Plan, China will aim to sell and produce 500,000 new energy vehicles by 2015 and five million by 2020. The country aims to become one of the world's leading markets for new energy vehicles.

The number of automobiles on China's roads is expected to reach 200 million by 2020. That number of traditional fuel powered vehicles would require 250 million to 300 million tons of fuel to operate.