Chinese government taking steps to promote development of new energy vehicle industry

The Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Science and Technology released a new announcement regarding the development of the new energy automobile industry in China. The government has taken steps to invest a total of 4.2 billion RMB ($685.27b) to promote the development of the new energy vehicle industry in the country. Funds will begin being collected starting this May.

According to the plan, funds will be collected from 25 different enterprises, with each enterprise contributing over 150 million RMB ($24.47m) each. However, Chen Quanshi, director of the Electric Vehicle Department of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China and professor at Tsinghua University, explains that the overall progress of this funding work is progressing very poorly, stating that “if they finish half of this goal that’s already very good.”

Enterprises targeted for funding include JAC Motors, Dongfeng Motors, Beijing Automobile, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, BYD, FAW Group, Chery Automobile, Great Wall Motor, SAIC Group and others.

Mr. Chen summarized his opinion of the new energy vehicle development plan, “Even though China’s new energy vehicle policies are the best in the world, there is a lot of factors that hinder their final implementation.”