Chongqing to use electric taxis in central urban areas

Chongqing in Southwest China has issued a plan for a three-year campaign (2021-23) to develop China's top-class new energy vehicle and intelligent connected vehicle application scenarios. The plan states that in the next three years, electric taxis will be introduced in central urban areas in the municipality, according to news released on Aug 11 by the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission.

In addition, the plan also clarifies the municipality's priority to use electric vehicles in online car-hailing services and as official cars for government-affiliated institutions.

Electric vehicles in Chongqing will eventually account for at least 30 percent of all vehicles. They will also be preferred for express delivery and other logistics services in Chongqing.

Liangjiang New Area and Yubei district will be developed into key areas, helping Chongqing become China's demonstration city for the battery-changing model. More than 200 charging stations will be built with a service capacity of 20,000 electric cars.

Tu Xingyong, deputy director of the Chongqing Economic and Information Technology Commission, said the global auto industry is experiencing reforms driven by new energies and intelligent devices. Chongqing's automobile manufacturers would risk losing their competitiveness if they failed to seize this opportunity.

By 2023, Chongqing plans to build new cooperative vehicle-infrastructure roads exceeding 1,000 kilometers in length and new intelligent highways of no less than 500 km, and transform more than 1,200 crossroads.