The sale of these green vehicles — hybrid, electric and fuel cell — grew to 507,000 units in 2016, an increase of 53 percent over 2015 according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Many large cities in China restrict the number of new vehicle registrations in order to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. Green vehicles have an edge over regular ones in ease of registration which is one of the reasons cited for their success. Another is the availability, at least in large cities, of a growing number of charging stations.
Prof. Dr. Jochem Heizmann, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, has stated the company is committed to increased production of new energy vehicles in China. He expressed his belief China is the world’s largest market for new energy vehicles.
“We are witnessing truly exciting times for the automotive industry. In future, building great cars will no longer be sufficient,” Heizmann said at the recently held China EV100 Forum 2017.
“Our vision is to drive our transformation from a car manufacturer to a people-centered provider of sustainable mobility solutions. Therefore, we are also gearing up to deliver a broad portfolio of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). We are prepared to deliver around 400,000 NEVs to Chinese Customers by 2020 and 1.5 million NEVs by 2025.”
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