China province pushes EVs as heavy truck sales climb

The Sichuan government in China wants to the region to support electric vehicle development.

The provincial government of Sichuan in China is pulling out all the stops to promote development of alternative energy vehicles. This part of China is now aiming to produce 100,000 vehicles a year, resulting in a $15 billion total industry output, Yicai Global reports.

Sichuan based this forecast on the total output of new energy vehicles for the year 2016, which tallied 14,500 new EVs. With results this good, the province has raised the stakes, hoping to produce 100,000 EVs a year until the 2020 goal is achieved. To complement the expected increase of EVs to run through this side of China, there is a plan to install about 12,000 charging stations in Sichuan.

Sichuan’s government is looking to build the province into a place where EV companies set up business for research and development.

On the truck side, sales for heavy trucks in China increased 89% in September over the year prior, breaking the 100,000-unit mark. That followed sales of 97,600, 90,200 and 93,700 in the preceding months, according to a Chinese-language report from Cvworld.cn that Yicai Global referenced.

Faw Jiefang topped the list of China’s top-selling heavy truck manufacturers for the third quarter of 2017.

Cvworld.cn attributed the boom in heavy truck sales to the manufacturing boom. The manufacturing sector’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) was reported at 52.4 percent for September. The last time the PMI reached a percentage this high was back in May 2012. Add the government regulation set in place for the heavy truck industry and more units are expected to fly off the shelves in the coming months.

The industry can see records set in terms of total heavy trucks sales by the end of 2017. The industry is poised to sell 1.1 million heavy trucks this year, which would break the record of 1 million set in 2010.