According to the new energy office and policy maker Mr. Liu Jian Hua, Shanghai city is developing its own plans to promote green cars in the city in a bid to clear up the cities automotive smog. Should a Shanghai resident buy a plugin hybrid, they will be able to receive a 20,000 subsidy, and it is expected that buyers of pure electric vehicles will be able to obtain a government subsidy of between 40,0000 and 50,000rmb. It is hoped that the planned subsidies maybe put into action before the end of the year.

Mr. Liu revealed that Shanghai is aiming to have sales of 20,000 electric cars in 2012, and is planning to set up 25,000 charging points and 50 charging stations around the city.

Shanghai is hoping to push its citizens into a new generation of electric vehicles by using the carrot and stick method, the initial charging stations will be set up in Jia Ding district as a testing zone, but will soon be spread out to Chang Ning, Pudong, Ming Hang and Chong Ming County.

Shanghai is arguably leading the way in electric and hybrid car development thanks to its domestic automotive giant, SAIC, and its multiple joint venture partners. The Roewe 750 hybrid will finally launch at the end of the year since the concept version was unveiled in Beijing in 2006 and is offering to save upto 20% fuel over regular 750′s., the plugin electric Roewe 550 is also due in in 2012, also SAIC are working on an AO segment pure electric car that will also launch in the same time frame, which is likely to be based on the Roewe E1 concept car that we saw earlier this year. Shanghai Maple, a Geely sub-brand, is also expected to launch a mild hybrid in early 2011, and Chery’s pure electric S18′s production base is going to be set up in Shanghai’s Jia Ding district and will have a production capacity of 20,000 vehicles per year.