China is considering investing $16bn in electric-car charging infrastructure to boost the fortunes of the clean vehicles across the country, say reports.
Estimated to be the world’s biggest net carbon emitter, China hopes to cut pollution and galvanise the domestic electric-car industry, which already gets tax breaks.
The policy will be announced soon, said two people "familiar with the matter", Bloomberg reported. They would not say if the charging stations would be compatible with US electric car manufacturers such as Tesla Motors.
Related Chinese policies include repealing a tax on fuel efficient cars and also plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles.
Ashvin Chotai, managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia, told Bloomberg: "Charging infrastructure and electric vehicle (EV) growth is a chicken-and-egg situation. It’s got to be a gradual process to scale up both EV sales as well as charging infrastructure. EVs are still not very attractive when compared with conventional-powered cars."
Finland has also been planning major changes to traditional car use.
Elsewhere, researchers in the US have built a fake city to see how driverless cars really behave.
