Chinese carmaker Geely to target new-energy vehicles for 90 percent of total sales by 2020
Chinese automaker Geely will target new-energy vehicles for 90 percent of total sales by 2020, Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said during the 13th National People's Congress on Tuesday.
“New-energy vehicle development will be our key focus this year, as electrification is an important trend in the automobile industry,” Li said.
Geely aims to sell 2 million units of vehicles by 2020, with new energy vehicle sales hitting 1.8 million units.
The new energy vehicle sales target will be divided into hybrid vehicles that will account for 65 percent of the total sales by 2020 and electric vehicles that are set to take up 35 percent.
Geely’s move into the new-energy vehicle sector meets with the Chinese government’s initiative. China is the largest market for new-energy vehicles in the world and the government is actively promoting sales and production of green cars. A total of 777,000 new energy vehicles were sold in the Chinese market last year, up 53.3 percent year on year, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
In order to meet the sales goal of new-energy vehicles, Geely said it will further expand new-energy vehicle product line this year, with launch of electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The company said it will roll out new-energy vehicle models including Emgrand EV450, the all-new K model, the new Emgrand PHEV and other models by the end of this year.
Geely said it will exceed the Chinese government fuel directives to bring average fuel consumption to 5 liters per 100 kilometers by 2020. The company will sell plug-in hybrid vehicles at similar prices to traditional combustion-engine cars.
“We are committed to helping consumers achieve the dream of purchasing an eco-friendly vehicle by utilizing our strengths to reduce the cost of new-energy vehicles to that of traditional combustion-engine cars,” Geely said in a statement.
Geely sold 1.2 million units of vehicles last year, up 63 percent annually. The company targets to sell 1.58 million units in 2018. In the first two months of this year, Geely sold 265,000 vehicles, or 17 percent of its sales goal this year.