Green autos to get boost

China's efforts to curb air pollution will boost the development of the new energy auto industry, but the country still faces difficulties in being able to meet its target of selling 500,000 green vehicles per year by 2015, experts said Thursday.

New energy autos, which includes plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, should account for more than 60 percent of new buses added annually in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to an action plan on combating airborne pollution unveiled Thursday on the central government's website.

The plan states that the public transport and environmental sanitation sectors and government institutions should first adopt new energy vehicles.

A batch of measures such as fiscal subsidies and exemptions from car plate lotteries should be adopted to encourage private purchases of green vehicles, the plan said.

The measures are part of China's efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and will also boost the development of the new energy vehicle industry, experts said.

"The plan will mainly boost the use of new energy vehicles in public sectors, but it still helps little in the private sector," Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, told the Global Times Thursday.

Experts said a lack of core technology and local protectionism are two major obstacles that have hindered the nation in achieving its target of producing and selling 500,000 electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles annually by 2015.

Only 5,889 new energy vehicles were sold in China in the first half of this year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

"Private purchases can be stimulated only if new energy auto makers move into mass production and release some star models," Cui said.

A fund of more than 4 billion yuan ($654 million) will be allocated to support the development of new energy auto companies, Su Bo, vice minister of industry and information technology, told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the Summer

Davos Forum.

"The fund will be mainly used for supporting technology innovation, such as battery technologies," Su said.

How to break regional protectionism is also an urgent task for green vehicle development, Zhang Zhiyong,

a Beijing-based independent auto industry analyst, told the Global Times Thursday.

"Currently local governments only subsidize locally manufactured models, which has restricted the popularization of new energy vehicles," Zhang said.

A plan to promote the use of new energy vehicles has been approved by the State Council, and four ministries are mulling detailed measures, which will be released soon, said Wan Gang, minister of science and technology, at an auto industry forum held Saturday in North China's Tianjin.