China Hammers out Tougher Subsidy Plan for Electric Vehicles.docVIP

China Hammers out Tougher Subsidy Plan for Electric Vehicles 　　The boom for China’s electric vehicle makers may be nearing an end as regulators crack down on abuse of generous subsidies and draft tougher policies on incentives. 　　The proposed new regulations follow an eight-month nationwide investigation that found widespread cheating on subsidy programs by electric-vehicle makers. Investigators found that some companies collected hundreds of millions of yuan by inflating the number of vehicles they made. Sometimes they cashed in before making any electric autos at all. 　　Policymakers are revising the incentives that will be implemented in the next five years， sources close to the matter said. Under the program， which was installed in 2009 to encourage new-energy vehicle development， central and local governments have doled out hundreds of billions of yuan in subsidies to companies that build electric cars and plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles. 　　The incentive program helped make China the world leader in electric-auto production. Spurred by the subsidies， about 200 manufacturers across the country built 379，000 electric and hybrid vehicles in 2015， four times more than in the previous year， according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. 　　Electric and hybrid vehicles sales in China more than quadrupled last year to 331，000， about 60 percent of the global total， making the country the world’s largest electric-car market， followed by the United States. 　　But subsidies rather than sales became the main revenue source for many electric-auto makers； penalties and the loss of incentive payments are already hurting profits. Suzhou- based Higer Bus Co. is one of five producers that the government sanctioned for subsidy excesses. The company is an example of the ripple effect across China’s electric-vehicle industry of the subsidies and the im-pact of the government crackdown. 　　Suzhou Higer Bus， the country’s second-largest minibus producer，