The Chinese government will waive a 10 per cent sales tax on electric vehicles in its latest attempt to spur consumer interest in environmentally friendly transportation.
More than 20,400 electric vehicles were sold in the first half of this year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), exceeding the number of pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids sold in all of 2013.
But in the context of the world’s largest auto market, with sales of 18m cars last year, uptake has been anaemic. Wan Gang, China’s science and technology minister, said at a briefing on Thursday that there were only about 78,000 electric vehicles – primarily public buses and taxis – on the country’s roads.