New organization formed to boost China's EV industry

China established a non-profit organization on Monday to boost the electric vehicle (EV) industry with more cooperation in research, policy making and business management.

Ministers and other senior officials of transportation, technology, science and reform, as well as scholars and entrepreneurs, attended the founding meeting of the China Association for Electric Vehicles with 100 Members (China EV 100) and the following seminar in Beijing.

Wan Gang, head of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that charging points will be included in the overall transportation and energy planning, and urged stepping up research of more stable batteries.

Miao Wei, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information, said that the development of new energy vehicles also requires more application of Internet communication technologies as well as innovative business models to tackle the bottleneck in charging point construction.

The China EV 100 this year will study surveys on issues including EV infrastructure, battery improvement, pilot EV business models and intelligent systems.

Official statistics showed that China produced 17,500 new-energy vehicles in 2013, up 39.7 percent year on year, of which 14,200 were EVs, while sales of new-energy cars surged 37.9 percent from a year ago.