Pure electric cars key to launch of subsidy

Beijing has delayed the long-awaited consumer subsidies for alternative-fuel vehicles because of disagreement within the car industry over whether to favor hybrid cars or pure electric vehicles. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology meeting last month, which included more than 10 car executives, ended without an agreement on subsidies, according to one executive who attended. Beijing originally planned to begin the subsidies in the first quarter. But car executives and the government could not come up with a compromise. The plan was to give individual consumers a huge subsidy, as much as 60,000 yuan (US$8,788.96) for a pure electric, plug-in car, while hybrids would get 3,000 yuan (US$439.45) per unit. (April 2, 2010)