China’s Electric Cars Sales Boom To Continue, Sales To Double In 2016, China Minister States

Originally published on Sustainnovate.

Electric vehicle sales and production will double in China in 2016, according to recent reports. This refers of course to both all-electric vehicles (EVs) and also to plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

This matches a similar claim made by BYD founder and chairman Wang Chuanfu in an interview with Sustainnovate right after BYD won the 2016 Zayed Future Energy Prize in theLarge Corporation category.

Given that over 300,000 electric vehicles were said to be sold in China in 2015, that means that sales are expected to top 600,000 in 2016. Well, that’s the prediction of the head of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology anyways — predictions and opinions may vary.

The ministry head, Miao Wei, was quoted making the prediction while attending the recent annual meeting of parliament. Miao also commented to reporters at the scene that the country needs to (and presumably will be) speeding up the installation of EV charging stations in the near future.

Comments concerning the need to improve electric vehicle capacity, lifespan, and reliability, were also made by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology head.