New policies to encourage new energy vehicle usage in Beijing

A total of 5.57 million automobiles are currently on Beijing’s roads, emitting 700,000 tons of emissions annually, a report from the Beijing Youth Daily today revealed. In order to tackle this severe level of pollution, Beijing is taking several steps to limit the number of license plates registered to non-new energy vehicles. According to the report, Beijing is decreasing the number of plates issued to normal vehicles by 10,000 vehicles, and adding 10,000 plates to be issued to new energy vehicles. Over the past few years, the number of plates issued annually have decreased from 240,000 to 150,000.

In addition to modifying plate volumes, small pure electric cars will be exempt from daily driving limits this year. Li Kun, head of the Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau’s Department of Vehicle Emissions, stated that this policy will be beneficial in encouraging new energy vehicle sales.

On top of increasing the number of new energy vehicles on the city’s roads, there are plans to boost the number of new energy-powered cleaning and transport vehicles. The proportion of new energy vehicles used for such roles are expected to exceed 65 percent by 2017, representing a 40 percent decrease in fuel consumption.

Furthermore, measures are also being taken to limit the usage of vehicles which fail to meet certain emission requirements and to encourage the replacement of older vehicles. Starting from next year, vehicles which fail to meet or only meet the first level of national emission standards will be prohibited from driving within Beijing’s sixth ring road. There are currently 200,000 or so such vehicles in Beijing, with their average age exceeding 14 years. Vehicles which only meet the second level of national emission standards will also be restricted from driving on these roads on a future date.