China is the world's leading market for electric vehicles, accounting for approximately 46 per cent of the global fleet, according to data from June this year, when 10 million highway-legal plug-in passenger cars were on Chinese roads.
The ruling Communist Party is promoting electric cars to help clean up China’s smog-choked cities and gain an early lead in a growing industry.
The Hainan provincial government declared that sales of fossil fuel-powered cars will be banned on the island by 2030 and that electric vehicles will be promoted with tax breaks and by expanding the charging network, as described in its 'Carbon Peak Implementation Plan'.
“By 2030, the whole province will ban sales of fuelled vehicles,” according to the plan, which goes on to state that Hainan aims to have electric vehicles account for 45 per cent of its vehicles by 2030. It said cities will develop “zero-emissions zones” where fossil fuel-powered vehicles will be banned...