A national project on environmentally friendlier motor vehicles
will invest more than 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) by the end of
2004 on further developing the cleaner technology in China, experts
discussing the project said yesterday.
The promotion of vehicles with low exhaust emissions is a solution
to air pollution in China, especially in big cities such as Beijing
and Shanghai.
In
1999, China launched a National Clean Automobile Taskforce to
promote cleaner vehicles across the country, according to Shi
Dinghuan, an official with the Ministry of Science and
Technology.
The latest project on the development and demonstration of crucial
technologies for cleaner automobiles is designed to promote the
work further. Experts and government officials, car makers and
research institutions discussed the project yesterday.
Of
the investment needed by the project, 43 million yuan (US$5.2
million) will come from the central government, said Wang Binggang,
the chief expert on the taskforce's experts group, who presented
details of the project yesterday.
Through the project, motor manufacturers and local governments in
China are expected to continue to invest further in the development
of cleaner vehicles.
Wang said that, by the end of 2004, between 10 and 13 pilot
projects will be established for the use of cleaner automobiles
driven by compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied
petroleum gas, substitute fuels such as methanol, and electric
engines.
Such demonstration projects will involve at least 900 vehicles,
which will meet the European Union's Euro II emission standard or
even Euro III, Wang said.
About 10 to 15 cities around the country will be selected to
concentrate on the application of cleaner vehicles, he said.
In
those cities, more than 50 percent of taxis and buses will use
cleaner technology.
According to Wang, 37 experimental bases for cleaner automobiles
and five production bases for gas-fuelled vehicles have already
been established in China.
In
the Chinese market, there are now 35 types of gas-fuelled cars and
56 gas-fuelled buses, he said.
There are estimated to around 150,000 cleaner automobiles in China,
which account for nearly 1 percent of the total number of motor
vehicles in the country.
Nearly 130,000 of the cleaner automobiles are in 12 cities which
had been selected as pilot cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and
Tianjin.
Despite the fact that the automobiles' emission levels are
relatively low, many of them still fail to meet the Euro I emission
standard, Wang pointed out. That is because most of them are
refitted vehicles, he explained.
(China Daily November 13, 2002)