Assisting Chinese Cities’ Transition to EVs

On December 28, 2022, the Beijing EV100 New Energy Vehicle Technology Development Institute (ChinaEV100) and the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) jointly held a webinar, “Assisting Chinese Cities’ Transition to EVs.” The event was an opportunity to officially share a report jointly prepared by the host organizations, “Assessment of Leading New Energy Vehicle City Markets in China and Policy Lessons,” and it was released in both Chinese and English. This event aimed to showcase various electric vehicle development paths from leading cities with different features, as these are a good reference for other cities.

Representatives from 13 Chinese cities and leaders from 17 government departments joined industry experts and enterprise managers at the roundtable discussion at the event. The following organizations also attended the event:

• German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ)
• World Resources Institute (WRI)
• Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences
• Transport planning and Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport of China
• Beijing Transport Institute
• China Automotive Technology and Research Center

The roundtable discussion covered five primary topics: (1) how to objectively evaluate the development of vehicle electrification in cities; (2) which experiences and practices are worth spreading to other cities; (3) how to promote electric vehicles in cities with different features; (4) how to electrify commercial vehicles in cities; and (5) challenges of vehicle electrification at the next stage.

Background

Cities are at the frontier of new energy vehicle (NEV) deployment in China and are often where cutting-edge vehicle and charging technologies, business models, and policies are tested. At the same time, cities are faced with multiple challenges, such as the need to control pollution, reduce carbon emissions, and develop their economies. Despite the temporary impact of COVID-19 on the automobile market, China’s new energy vehicle market has experienced tremendous growth in recent years and that growth is attributable to multiple efforts, including ones at the city level.
In the past decade, cities with different features developed their own strategies and policies to promote NEVs, and many of them are good examples for other cities that have similar characteristics. Given this, ICCT and ChinaEV100 jointly researched the leading cities in the new energy passenger car and new energy commercial vehicle segments and analyzed the policies and cases of those leaders. The result is a report series about their experiences and practices that is useful for other cities’ NEV development.

About ChinaEV100

China EV100 is a nonprofit organization and third-party think tank aiming to encourage the development of the electric vehicle industry. By providing a platform without boundaries across industries, disciplines, ownership, and departments, it promotes convergence and collaborative innovation across multiple fields through research and communication.