北京计划分阶段将出租车替换为电动车 – Caixin
What happened: Beijing municipal government will replace all gas-powered taxis with electric cars over the next two years, Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Motor Corp, said on Tuesday. Speaking at the first World New Energy Vehicle Congress (WNEVC) in the southern Chinese city of Boao, Xu said that gas-powered taxi replacement is ongoing and the new vehicles are equipped with functions such as fast charging and exchangeable batteries. Last month, the city government released a two-year action plan, requiring local taxi operators to deploy a total of 20,000 new EVs over the next two years. BAIC will supply all the new vehicles.
Why it’s important: China is accelerating its pace to develop new energy vehicles as it take aim at the global EV auto race. Electric vehicles are a featured government sustainability initiative along with the tougher vehicle emission standards which took effect in the beginning of the year. Beijing is not the first Chinese city aggressively promoting new energy vehicles: Shenzhen replaced all gas-powered taxis with electric cars in December, and Shenzhen-based BYD was the sole supplier. China’s largest EV maker, BYD sells more than 60% of its pure electric cars for public transport.