China will resume issuing new-energy vehicle (NEV) production permits as early as the first half of 2018, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the matter.
In June, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic planner, halted permits over concerns that "additional approval may lead to domestic oversupply in the auto market," the Financial Times reported that month.
The Chinese government is now evaluating the suspension and dealing with dozens of unapproved applications, said the Bloomberg report.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the NDRC is revising the regulations to raise production thresholds for new entrants.
Since March 2016, China has handed out 15 NEV production licenses to several auto manufacturers, including Wanxiang Group based in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, and a Volkswagen AG joint venture, domestic news website sina.com reported on Tuesday. It is expected that factories under construction will bring in capacity of more than 2 million NEVs every year, said the report.
At the same time, foreign automakers including Ford and Tesla have rolled out plans to set up electric car production plants in China to meet quotas set by the government by 2019, the report noted.
In October, news website caixin.com quoted sources close to the matter as saying that China is also considering loosening foreign equity limits for joint ventures in the NEV sector.
The nation's NEV market is growing rapidly. In the first eight months of 2017, 320,000 NEVs were sold in China, up 30.2 percent year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
