Senior Chinese officials outlined how they aimed to turn their country into the world’s largest producer of electric cars, including a focus on consumer choice rather than corporate subsidies.
Speaking at a conference at the government’s prestigious Diaoyutai guesthouse here, the officials acknowledged that their efforts faced challenges in terms of the cost and safety of electric cars. They promised a nationwide effort by manufacturers, universities, research institutes and government agencies to overcome these obstacles.
Wan Gang, a former Audi engineer in Germany who is now China’s minister of science and technology, portrayed the country’s electric car initiative as central to China’s international competitiveness, but said that there were environmental goals as well.
“We need to be sustainable in different sectors, particularly in the auto sector,” he said.
China also has a 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) program to help the industry with automotive innovation.
In the United States, the government is providing $25 billion to help cover Detroit’s research costs in the coming years.
Chinese and foreign automakers have embarked on a number of demonstration projects for electric cars, with Nissan announcing in Wuhan, a city in central China. But very few electric cars are on the road in China yet.
Miao Wei, the vice minister for industry and information technology, said at the conference that automotive sales and production set records last month; the previous records for both were set in March of last year.
Mr. Miao, a former chairman of Dongfeng Motor, one of China’s biggest automakers, said that the ever-growing fleet of China posed three problems: air pollution, rising consumption of imported oil and traffic congestion.
Alternative-energy vehicles “are the only way out to address these challenges,” he said.
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