Dear CoP Friends,

Please kindly provide ideas (if any) on hybrid vehicles. Topics can cover: recent HEV technologies (plug-in hybrid, pure/hard hybrid without plug-in, etc.); cost and benefit of such HEV; issues of electric charging infrastructures for plug-in hybrid, country policy instruments on promoting HEVs; and technical suitability, e.g. in China.

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As you might be awared, China is implementing a series of "Pilot Program for Promoting New Energy Vehicles" (not only for HEV, but also electric and fuel-cell):

Phase I (See the attachment): Started from 2009. Aims to promote/subsidize use of new energy vehicles for public use (e.g. gov car, taxi, bus, etc.) in 2009. 13 cities were picked as pilot cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, etc. No private/individual vehicles join the program in this phase (2009). The max subsidy to hybrid, electric and fuel-cell taxi were set as CNY50,000, 60,000, and 250,000 respectively; and for bus were CNY420,000, 500,000, and 600,000 respectively.

Phase II: Phase II started from June 2010. Similar policy as phase I, only public vehicles are covered. 7 additional pilot cities are picked for phase II (13 cities in phase I): Tianjin, Haikou, Zhengzhou, Xiamen, Suzhou, Tangshan, and Guangzhou.

Phase III (for individual vehicles): Started from 1 June 2010. Also known as "Green Car Subsidy Program". Citizens of pilot cities who purchase the new energy cars will be able to get subsidies from both central and local govs. Among them, the central gov subsidy can reach up to 60,000 CNY. The plan will be launched in the mid-2010. 5 pilot cities are selected for 2010: Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Heifei.