China to ban petrol and diesel cars, pushes for electric vehicles

China is at full-throttle to push electric vehicles (EVs) in the market and completely stop the sale of fossil-fuel powered vehicles. The country will soon launch a timetable commencing when the ban will ultimately take effect, according to a Bloomberg report.

In an attempt to give push to the green vehicle market, the world’s largest auto market, with 28.03 million vehicles sold last year, has been offering subsidies to manufacturers to develop and sell new EVs. It is also allowing foreign automakers to create a third joint venture with local automakers so long as it’s dedicated to the creation of EVs exclusively.

With many incentives for electric vehicles manufacturers, the Chinese government is building an environment for such OEMs, which will add to its positive efforts to drive more EVs sales in China. On the other side, there will be extreme negation conditions for automakers which are still selling a mix of fossil fuel and electrified vehicles; at some point, they just won’t be able to do business at all in the country.

This isn’t the first time a governing body has said it would eventually phase out the sale of traditional fuel vehicles: France said it will stop selling fossil fuel cars by 2040 in July, and the UK has committed to the same timeline for sales of those vehicles.

Similarly, India is also mulling over the idea of shifting from diesel and petrol-run vehicles to electric-run automobiles.

Recently, keeping the Central Government goal, to get rid of petrol and diesel vehicles from Indian roads by 2030, in mind, Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari has warned automakers in the country to move to vehicles that run on electricity, biodiesel, ethanol and compressed natural gas.

China’s timeline for establishing this ban will be crucial in terms of how quickly we see the global shift to EVs occur, as it’s going to be an immense lever in terms of automaker strategic planning internationally, as well as in the country.