China has planned to increase the number of electric vechicles on the road to 500,000 by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.
Pollution in cities, in part caused by an explosion in car sales in recent years, is a a priority for China’s leaders, and several measures have been introduced, including curbs on sales of petrol-engined vehicles.
The current subsidies of up to 60,000 yuan ($9,800) are available for the purchase of an all-electric battery car and up to 35,000 yuan for a “near all-electric” plug-in vehicle were extended for a further three years at the end of 2012.