China's top auto expert said developing new energy vehicles does not conflict with updating the national emission standards of traditional vehicles and that new energy vehicles are facing up to challenges.
Ouyang Minggao, CPPCC member, professor of Tsinghua University and leader of the country's vehicle safety and energy-saving expert panel, said new energy vehicles, especially electric vehicles, have great potential in China as the country is the second largest electric vehicle market in the world.
75,000 new energy vehicles were sold in 2014 and 55,400 were electric ones while Ouyang predicted the number would be 200,000 this year.
Some insiders have said electric vehiclesare not necessarily that environmentally-friendly as electricity is mostly produced from pollutant energy sources.
"For this reason, new energy vehicles and traditional vehicles cannot be compared in terms of environmental protection."
China adopted the national IV emission standard nationwide in 2013 while some major cities like Beijing and Shanghai introduced the V standard the same year. As of March 1st, nine cities will nolonger register light vehicles meeting only the IV standard.
"New energy vehicles are an irreversible trend and emissions reduction is longtime task," said Ouyang, who is in charge of a national program responsible for new energy vehicles development. "In terms of electric vehicles, producing a good battery is the main problem."
The program team is now working on improving the battery function with fundingfrom the Ministry of Science and Technology. "Our job is to double the battery capacity and we have already mastered the core technology."
Fewer charging posts pose another problem for electric vehicles and Ouyang said his team is going to submit a proposal related to this issue to the two sessions.
The professor urged the nation's auto industry to upgrade the technical capacity of small and mini electric vehicles while lowering the price on larger luxury vehicles in order to attract more buyers.
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