Chongqing to push annual electric vehicle output to 242,000 by 2012
Shanghai. March 5. INTERFAX-CHINA - Chongqing Municipality said on March 5 that it aims to boost its annual output of electric vehicles to 242,000 units by 2012.
The government expects the vehicle sales to generate an estimated RMB 29.6 billion ($4.33 billion) in revenue by 2012.
Currently, there are five large automobile manufacturers in Chongqing which produce electric vehicles - Chana Auto Co. Ltd., Lifan Group, Yu'an Group, Loncin Group and Hengtong Bus Co. Ltd.
Chana, Loncin, Lifan, Yu'an and Hengtong plan to boost their production capacities to 120,000, 70,000, 20,000, 30,000 and 2,000 units respectively by 2012, according to the Chongqing government.
The national target is for 10 percent of domestically produced automobiles - roughly 1 million units - to be powered by renewable energy by 2010, according to Wan Gang, China's minister of science and technology.
There were 13.64 million vehicles sold in China in 2009, and the country replaced the United States as the world's largest automobile market.
The Chinese government will strongly promote the use of electric vehicles over the next few years in an effort to reduce steadily increasing levels of oil consumption and carbon emissions. Automobiles account for more than 85 percent of gasoline and 20 percent of diesel fuel consumption annually.
-WV