China’s much-vaunted plan to spend over US$15 billion on turning itself into a global leader in new-energy vehicles within 10 years has been submitted to the State Council for approval, state media reported. The plan targets annual sales of five million units by 2020. By 2015 – the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period – the country aims to have an annual production capacity of one million new-energy vehicles, 50% of which will be pure-electric and plug-in hybrid machines. In order to promote the development of core technologies used in these vehicles, within five years the government will establish up to five businesses devoted to producing batteries and electric motors. It has been reported that China wants to reduce the price of batteries to RMB2 (US$0.30) per watt-hour by 2015 and RMB1.5 per watt-hour by 2020. Chen Qingquan, chairman of the World Electric Vehicle Association, said that he expects hybrid and pure-electric vehicle to account for 15% of the country’s auto market in 10 years.
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