On the morning of December the 9th, 2017 at the inauguration of the Beijing New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Centre, the president of BAIC Group promised to end the sales of BAIC fossil fuelled passenger cars by 2025, making it the second Chinese automaker to make this commitment.
On behalf of BAIC Group, President Xu Heyi promised, “Our goal is: to take the lead in Beijing in 2020 to fully stop our own brand of traditional fuel passenger cars sale to completely discontinue the production and sale of our own brand of traditional fuel passenger cars in China by 2025.”
Introduction to BAIC Group
BAIC Group, a state-owned enterprise, is the largest Chinese automaker. In 2009, BAIC founded BAIC New Energy Vehicle and began the process of researching and building electric vehicles.
BAIC is one of the leaders in pure electric vehicle sales in China but it does not have traditional hybrid or plug-in hybrid models. BAIC BJEV, which deals with EV sales, delivered 66,714 vehicles in the first 10 months of 2017. The BAIC EC-Series was the best selling EV in the world in October of this year.
An emerging trend in China
BAIC is the second Chinese automaker to phase out fossil fuel passenger vehicles. As previously reported, Changan Automobile Co. will phase out fossil fuel passenger vehicles in 2025 as well. Changan Automobile Co., which is the 5th largest Chinese auto manufacturer, created the Shangri-La plan, which pledges to invest more than 100 billion Yuan ($15 billion) into its clean energy future.
BAIC Chairman Xu Heyi recently got into the news when he predicted that in 2018 electric vehicle production in China would rise to more than 1 million cars, and then get up to 3 million by 2020.
More coverage of the Beijing New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Centre and China’s ongoing development of the EV business ecosystem is coming soon.
Sources: BAIC, BJEV, Gasgoo, Gasgoo, CleanTechnica, and CleanTechnica