China producing more electric cars

Chinese car makers produced 11 times as many new energy vehicles in August 2014 as they did in August 2013, authorities said.

They made a total of 5,191 green vehicles last month after the government rolled out more support for the sector, Xinhua cited from a statement by the ministry of industry and IT.

For the first eight months of the year, the total production was 31,137 units.

New energy vehicles include pure electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

During the January-August period, the output of pure electric passenger cars soared nearly 700 percent from a year earlier to 16,276 units and that for the plug-in hybrid passenger cars climbed about 12 times to 6,621 units.

The output of pure electric and plug-in hybrid commercial vehicles went up by 55 percent and 91 percent respectively, the statement said.

China has rolled out measures, including tax exemptions and subsidies for car purchases, to encourage the use of new energy vehicles.

In July, the government announced that new energy cars will be exempted from a 10-percent purchase tax from Sep 1, 2014 till the end of 2017.

However, new energy cars still account for only a tiny proportion of China's total auto output.

In the first seven months, the country's automotive industry produced 13.3 million vehicles, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.