China ramps up efforts to cut vehicle CO2 and local pollution; involved in supply of electric taxis and buses for London
Fri 06 December 2013
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The Chinese government has launched plans to promote the uptake of low carbon and alternatively-fuelled vehicles in twenty-eigtht urban areas across China. The plans include the provision of subsidies aimed particularly at government and public bodies and public transportation. Four national Government ministries have pledged their support for the project.
The cities involved include include Beijing and Shanghai as well as the major provincial capitals.
In a statement made in the early autumn, the Ministries of Finance, Science and Technology and Industry and Information Technology together with the National Development and Reform Commission said manufacturers of pure electric automobiles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell cars will be eligible for subsidies.
In 2012 China set itself targets to produce and sell 500,000 energy-efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles by 2015 and 5 million low carbon vehicles by 2020. The central government is requiring local governments to have at least 30 percent new-energy vehicles in their official fleets and mass transit systems.
The schemed is aimed at boosting the local market. However the subsidies are reported by China Daily to have attracted interest from global manufacturers such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz and niche automakers like Tesla who have all begun to import their electric cars into China.
In a separate development, following a high-level meeting between the US and China in December, the US announced an agreement to provide technical expertise to implement a new round of stricter vehicle emissions standards, known as China VI, which would require cars to have particulate filters to help the larger Chinese cities deal with chronic local pollution problems. The China V diesel standards, which were introduced in Beijing earlier in 2013 and are due to be extended across the country by 2017, cap the allowed sulphur content at 10 ppm from 2014, equivalent to Europe's current standard.
Meanwhile, China's motor manufacturers have been actively promoting low carbon automotive technologies to the UK with Geely Automobile Holdings Group, which now owns London's black cabs, announcing plans to develop a fully-electric version of the iconic taxi within five years.
Londoners are already seeing the first all-electric buses on the streets of the capital following Chinese firm BYD's handover of two of its 'ebuses' to Transport for London, to be operated by the Go-Ahead group (both organisations are LowCVP members).
Following testing in several other European cities the range of the BYD ebus has been shown to exceed 155 miles on a single charge in real-world urban conditions.
Mike Weston, TfL’s Director of Buses (and Chair of LowCVP's Bus Working Group), said, “We will be closely monitoring the performance of these vehicles while they are being trialled here in London. Should the performance and reliability of these buses meet London’s challenging requirements, this could be a very important step towards adopting this new clean technology in the capital.”
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