Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    IT’S hard to imagine Shenzhen without gas-powered buses, but the city is trying to do that. All public buses in Shenzhen will be replaced by electric buses within three years, while over 20,000 recharging poles for e-vehicles will be set up by the end of 2015.

    Mayor Xu Qin made the remarks while accompanying a delegation of dozens of leaders of Hong Kong’s social groups during a visit to the Qianhai and Shekou area of the Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone, and a number of Shenzhen-based companies including BYD and Huawei on Monday.

    “BYD is leading production and sales of new-energy cars in China by taking 30 percent of market shares nationwide,” said Xu.

    He added Shenzhen plans to replace public buses with e-buses in three years to improve the city’s air quality and reduce carbon emissions.

    BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu said 3,600 e-buses made by the company will be ready to hit the road in Shenzhen by the end of the year and he hopes Shenzhen will be the first city to achieve zero-carbon emissions from public buses.

    Wang said the company’s next goal will be replacing taxis, garbage trucks and private cars with electric vehicles.

    In the latest move, the city’s transport commission said yesterday Shenzhen will lift purchase restrictions for e-cars, which means residents will not have to apply for license plate quotas for electricity-powered vehicles, which are required for fuel-powered vehicles.

    Shenzhen announced a restriction requiring prospective cars buyers to acquire license plates by lottery or auction at the end of December last year.

    While Shenzhen is accelerating the use of new energy vehicles, it is also building recharging facilities.

    According to the government work plan, the city will build 1,978 quick-charging poles, 21,750 slow-charging poles and 109 recharging stations by the end of 2015, which will be able to power over 20,000 electric vehicles.

    The State Council recently issued guidelines for beefing up the country’s recharging service for e-cars.

    The guidelines said that a recharging system is expected to be set up before 2020 to satisfy the needs of over 5 million electric vehicles in the country.

    According to the guidelines, newly built residential estates should equip all parking places with recharging poles, while public buildings and public parking lots should have charging poles installed next to at least 10 percent of parking places.

    The guidelines also encourage recharging service providers to adopt innovative business models by using the Internet, while local governments are supposed to support power grids for recharging facilities as part of the local power distribution networks.