NEV industry to rev up in Xi'an

Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, recently issued plans to accelerate the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry.

The plans proposed that Xi'an develop into a first-class NEV industry base by 2025.

By 2025, the total industrial output value of the city's NEV industry above a designated size should account for more than 40 percent of the city's automobile manufacturing industry, and the scale of production and sales should lead the country.

Major breakthroughs should be made in key technologies such as complete vehicles and power batteries, drive motors, and on-board operating systems. The average power consumption of new pure electric passenger vehicles should be reduced to 12 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.

In addition, the number of NEVs in the city should reach about 500,000, and more NEVs for heavy-duty trucks and engineering vehicles should be put in use.

The city will carry out pilot demonstration applications for intelligent connected vehicles and help Xixian New Area and Xi'an High-tech Industries Development Zone build intelligent networked vehicle pilot areas and test demonstration areas.

Starting from 2022, all newly-added or updated buses, taxis, and online ride-hailing vehicles will be purely electric. By 2024, existing non-pure electric buses and taxis will be mostly eliminated or withdrawn, and by 2028, all non-pure electric ride-hailing vehicles will be completely withdrawn.

In addition, the city will build 350 NEV charging stations and 20,000 charging piles by 2025.