THE government is considering re-classifying petrol-electric hybrid vehicles so they get more favorable treatment than all-petrol or diesel counterparts under clean car rules, making it easier for automakers to meet environment quotas and offer more choice.

Global hybrid leaders Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. would be among the biggest beneficiaries of such change, which could allow them to make more hybrids and less of the more costly all-electric vehicles, experts said, after reviewing the draft policy proposal published last week by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Those rules have pushed both domestic and international automakers to spend billions of dollars on the development and production of so-called new-energy vehicles (NEVs), such as those powered solely by electricity and hydrogen fuel cells, as well as plug-in hybrids.

Under a system that kicked in this year, automakers in China are obliged to make up for a portion of the “negative” points they incur when they produce internal combustion engine vehicles with points won for producing NEVs.

In the draft proposal, hybrids would still be considered fossil-fuelled but re-classified as “low fuel consumption passenger vehicles.” Significantly, the number of negative points incurred for making hybrids will be less than for traditional vehicles.(SD-Agencies)