Finance ministry pressures automakers with quicker cuts to e-car subsidies

Beijing plans to roll back subsidies for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars faster than expected and will deny traditional hybrids that rely mainly on gasoline engines subsidies altogether, Reuters reported, citing policy documents posted to the Ministry of Finance’s website. The final version of the policy will scale subsidies back by 20% in 2017-2018 and by 40% in 2019-2020. Yale Zhang, managing director of the Shanghai consultancy Automotive Foresight, said that the government wants to pressure automakers to reduce their currently high prices for new energy vehicles instead of relying on subsidies for profit.