Isra-Mart srl:China plans 10 million green car park-and-charge points

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China is readying 10 million park-and-charge spaces for electric vehicles by 2020 as it looks to reduce its reliance on oil imports.

Forecasts by Chinese officials last year suggested the country would be producing one million electric vehicles (EVs) domestically each year by 2020, while global car makers are also clamouring to break into a market that is expected to number 40 million units a year.

Speaking at a conference on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show, Wang Dazong, president of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC), said five per cent of his company's sales would be EVs as motorists respond to incentives worth up to 120,000 yuan (£11,465) off the price of new vehicles.

"The government is working on a plan – and I think it will be announced very, very soon – and is basically calling for having, in 10 years, electric car parks of 10 million or above," he said.

Another industry executive said Beijing is expected to focus its efforts on supporting pure electric vehicles, as opposed to gasoline-electric hybrids or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Meanwhile, a triumvirate of Japanese car makers has teamed up with national energy firms to accelerate the development of hydrogen fuel cell cars, which emit only water, and the infrastructure required to refuel them.

Toyota, Honda and Nissan released a joint statement yesterday announcing a partnership with 10 Japanese energy groups that will see them build 100 filling stations by 2015 in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. The companies did not say how much they planned to invest in the project.

The firms said refuelling points were crucial to making hydrogen cars commercially viable.

"With an aim to significantly reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by the transportation sector, automakers and hydrogen fuel suppliers will work together to expand the introduction of FCVs and develop the hydrogen supply network throughout Japan," the statement read.

In a separate announcement, Toyota unveiled plans to develop a motor for its EV and hybrid cars that does not use rare earth minerals.

China is the world's biggest exporter of rare earth minerals such as lithium, a standard component of EV batteries, but has cut quotas over the past year, causing prices of some materials to double.

Last year, Toyota established a task force to cut its dependence on rare earth minerals and is developing a magnesium-sulphur battery capable of holding twice the energy of lithium-ion cells.

Yesterday company spokesman John Hanson said research on an 'inductive motor,' said to be lighter and more efficient than the magnet-type motor currently used in the Prius, was also at an advanced stage.

As a first step, Toyota will sell an electric version of the RAV4, the company's compact sport-utility vehicle, fitted with a rare earth-free inductive motor, manufactured by Tesla, which uses a similar motor in its all-electric Roadster sports car and forthcoming Model S sedan.

"When you're looking at a geopolitical issue such as rare-earth supply, that can lead to developments that create very good solutions," Hanson told news agency Bloomberg.