Vice-Minister says no bureaucratic infighting re: China’s energy-saving car project

Chinese Vice-Minister Su Bo of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) dispelled rumors that bureaucratic infighting has led to delays in the launching of the country’s ambitious plans to promote energy saving cars. “Recent press reports that plans for new energy vehicles have not been unveiled because several government departments disagree on the proposals contained misunderstandings,” he said. Su explained that despite the differences in opinion, there in fact was a high degree of consensus among the various planning bodies involved: the MIIT, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance. Su was the first high-ranking official to discuss the reported disputes among policymakers.
Delay of mainland’s “green” car plans
Last year, officials pledged to allocate 100 billion yuan (US$15.6billion) for the production of 20 million hybrid and electric cars until 2020, but the project has yet to be launched. In July, Premier Wen Jiabao openly questioned the assumption that China’s goal was to become the world’s biggest producer and consumer of “green” cars. Wen said, “It remains uncertain whether hybrid and electric cars, which are now the focus of much of the development, will be the winners in the end.” He said that there are several challenges facing the industry: “The next step in the development of new energy vehicles needs to resolve these problems: problems with their technical path, problems with core technologies, problems with investment, problems with policy support – all must be addressed as quickly as possible.” Policymakers hope that home-grown automakers would be able to produce cars that can compete with those produced by Japan, the United States and Europe. But Jiang Kejun, a director of the NDRC’s Energy Research Institute, expressed doubts: “New-energy vehicles still have many difficulties to overcome,” Jiang said. “In the future I believe the new energy vehicles we will see on the market will be foreign and imported,” he added. (September 9, 2011)