China expects to resume electric vehicle incentives sometime in the next couple of months, which will help defray the extra cost of buying more expensive electric vehicles.
The last series of Chinese electric vehicle incentives ran from 2010 through 2012. Anyone who wanted to buy and electric vehicle after December 31, 2012 had to pay full price. While clean electric vehicles save money on refueling and have very low emissions, they are also expensive.
To help defray the cost, China’s incentives gave $9,700 back to buyers of new electric vehicles. When the program ended in 2012, Chinese electric vehicle company BYD saw an immediate drop in sales.
BYD’s chairman was happy to note that China was going to start a new electric vehicle incentive program, hopefully to be announced by May. While the exact details are still unknown, BYD expects sales to increase once they are in place.