China's electric car production surges

BEIJING - China's new energy vehicle production jumped threefold to 25,400 vehicles year on year in the first quarter of 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Thursday.

The output of pure electric passenger cars rose 400 percent from a year earlier to 11,000 cars, with plug-in hybrid passenger cars rising nearly 500 percent to 7,257 in the three months of this year.

The output of pure electric and plug-in hybrid commercial vehicles went up by 500 percent and 61 percent, respectively.

In March alone, Chinese carmakers produced 13,500 new energy vehicles, increasing threefold compared to March 2014.

Intense promotion by the government has brought more new energy vehicles onto China's roads, saving energy and combating pollution.

In March, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) set a target of having 300,000 new energy vehicles on China's roads by 2020.

Its guideline, encouraging the production and purchase of new energy vehicles, set a target of 200,000 new energy buses and 100,000 new energy taxis and delivery vehicles by 2020.

China will continue to encourage the construction of charging facilities for new energy vehicles in cities and implement tax exemptions and subsidies for car purchases, said the MOT.