Beijing decided that from June pure electric cars would not be included in its policy banning cars from hitting the road one workday a week, based on the last digit of the license plate. The city's NEV plate quota will double to 60,000 next year.

Nicholls said, "If China is going to achieve its goal, then it will probably be mainly through local carmakers, which are already responding to demands to focus their investment on NEVs.

"That may require them to scale back ambitions elsewhere, such as international expansion, but they should benefit by securing market dominance and perhaps a long-term global advantage in a key industry."

BAIC Motor's EV arm, Beijing Electric Vehicle Co, or BAIC BJEV, said it plans to achieve large production capacity and high sales volumes by 2020 to stay in the No 1 position in China's pure electric car market.

Chongqing Changan New Energy Automobile Co, Changan Automobile's NEV arm, plans to launch 27 EV models by 2025.

Encouraging users

Last year, the government said it would issue 20,000 NEV license plates in Beijing, however, only 6,000 cars were registered, with the other plates left unwanted.

To make China's new-energy ambitions a reality, automakers are attempting to cultivate a NEV market, in which customers' concerns, including charging accessibility and electric driving mileage range, are currently leading to low sales.

The ministry and companies have started to encourage people to try NEVs at a low cost, in the hope they will like them and buy one in the future.

MIIT started a NEV time-share rental pilot program this month, and Minister Miao Wei encouraged the idea of opening a site for the project in Beijing airport as soon as possible.

In March, Sino-German joint venture BMW Brilliance teamed up with eHi Car Services Ltd, a car-rental company, to make its pure electric car ZINORO 1E available for rent in eHi's Beijing network.

Last year, BMW Brilliance started offering the 1E for daily and long-term rentals to meet the different requirements of its customers and installed charging posts at users' homes.

The company has gradually built up its public charging network in Beijing and Shanghai.

BMW Brilliance's Senior Vice-President for Marketing Jochen Goller said: "Electric mobility is one of the hottest topics in the automotive industry and everyone is talking about it. But at the end of the day, is also not only talking about it, it is about bringing e-mobility into action."

According to Goller, charging infrastructure and customers who fully understand what e-mobility is are two important aspects to make e-mobility work.

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