Chinese authorities on June 6 announced that local governments in China were not allowed to impose traffic and purchase restrictions on new energy vehicles (NEVs). Relevant restriction policies that have been implemented should be cancelled from now on.
Chinese local governments are strictly prohibited to introduce policies to curb consumers buying NEVs. Some regions that have conducted purchase limitation should gradually unleash the NEV buying based on respective status in urban traffic congestion, pollution abatement and traffic demand regulation, according to the announcement jointly published by China's National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment and Ministry of Commerce.
The authorities also encouraged local governments to offer support to those families who buy a NEV as their first household vehicle. NEV owners should be given parking fee relief in places with reasonable conditions.
The document also urged to largely reduce costs on NEV R&D and utilization. China should expedite the R&D and industrialized application in the next-generation automotive power battery, lift the battery energy capacity and safety performance, so as to lower the battery development cost by gradually building a standard battery platform.
To decrease the consumers' purchase cost, the government should encourage enterprises to innovate business modes, and promote such consumption form as battery rental. Besides, in a bid to lessen companies' operation expenditure, the management for products getting market access should be further improved to avoid repeated certification.
The convenience on using NEVs is another key issue that should be highlighted. Focusing on such pain points as short range and long charging time, companies should be inspired to research and develop NEVs featuring flexible battery installment and power refueling method combined with both battery charging and swapping by learning and using the battery swapping modes and application experience for public service. Equipments carrying technologies like high-power fast charging, wireless charging and mobile battery charging & swapping are encouraged to be researched and developed as well.
