New | FAW eyes sales of electric vehicles in China's most polluted cities
FAW Group, the mainland's third largest carmaker, hopes to sell several thousand electric vehicles by next year, especially in cities choked by smog, after launching models at last month's Beijing Auto Show.
FAW Group, the mainland's third largest carmaker, hopes to sell several thousand electric vehicles by next year, especially in cities choked by smog, after launching models at last month's Beijing Auto Show.
"We will first target cities that are under the greatest pressure to cut air pollution, particularly those that have set limits on new [non-electric] car licences," Dai Dali, general manager of the Changchun-based firm's new energy vehicle unit, told the .
They include Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, where buyers have to bid or join a lottery for the right to buy.
Shenzhen is also a prime target as it has one of the nation's biggest networks of recharging stations and policy backing for electric vehicles, while Chongqing and Chengdu's large market size is also attractive to FAW, Dai said.
Philip Securities analyst Zhang Jing said in a research note that the "no-queue" licence plate policy for electric vehicles is equivalent to a large "invisible subsidy".
FAW, a 60-year-old state-owned carmaker formerly known as First Automobile Works, spent about 100 million yuan (HK$126 million) in 2010 to build a production base for electric vehicles with an annual output capacity of 20,000 cars.
