NPC deputy calls for green strategy in China's car manufacturing

Ti Gong

A carbon reduction strategy is yet to be worked out for the automobile industry in China as the country aims to have CO2 emissions peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, according to Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Motor Corp and a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress from Shanghai.

Apart from reducing carbon emissions while using automobiles, the government also needs to pay attention to emissions during the whole auto manufacturing process, Chen said.

"The European Union, for example, is mulling new regulations to cap the carbon footprint of making a car or spare parts of cars," he pointed out. "This could be a challenge for car manufacturers from China."

Policy tools, capital and technologies will be indispensable in reducing carbon emissions across all links of the industry chain, Chen claimed.

Market players need incentives to use recyclable materials in making cars, and a carbon accounting system for the auto manufacturing process, with clearly defined carbon reduction obligations for manufacturers of both spare parts and cars, needs to be established, he suggested.

"By improving the recycling system for scrapped cars, we will be able to secure the resources of recyclable materials for making new cars," the NPC deputy noted. "While preferential loans could be an incentive for manufacturers to use recyclable materials in making cars."

National strategies are yet to be worked out for encouraging the research and development of low carbon technologies such as those related to hydrogen energy, which will need certain legal and policy barriers to be removed, Chen said.

He also called for long-term inducements for people to use new energy vehicles as much as possible, as the incentives for purchasing NEVs are already retreating.

This, Chen insisted, can entail favorable electricity tariffs for people who charge their NEVs and subsidies for the installation of chargers for electric cars.

SAIC Motor, an automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shanghai, is a leader in the NEV sector in China.

Last year, more than 26 million automobiles were sold in China, a 3.8 percent rise from the previous year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.