China cracks down on EV subsidy fraud

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has punished seven Chinese electric vehicle makers for subsidy cheating. Nearly 4,500 subsidized electric vehicles produced by the seven companies were found to have less powerful batteries than the firms declared when applying for incentives, according to an MIIT statement published on Saturday. The MIIT has removed the models in question from the list of approved electric vehicles and stopped accepting applications from the seven firms. It has also ordered them to rectify all existing problems within two months, after which they will be reassessed by MIIT. The move comes amid an ongoing nationwide investigation, which started in January 2016, into new-energy vehicle subsidy fraud – spurred by a government incentive program – that has seen firms collect hundreds of millions of yuan after inflating the number of vehicles they had made, according to Caixin.