BYD Co Ltd, a major Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer, said on June 27 it plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles by 2020, betting big on the booming industry.

"I see no reason why demand will not grow. With the falling price of e-cars and charging infrastructure in place, there will be more buyers choosing the green path," says Wang Chuanfu, the company's founder and chairman.

He made the remarks at the three-day Tianjin Davos Forum.

Wang says last year marked a milestone, with 300,000 e-cars sold, accounting for 1.3 percent of the number of combustion-engine cars sold. He predicts the figure will reach 30 percent by 2025 because of the growing interest from Chinese consumers.

"It may take a decade to grow from zero to 1 percent for any industry, but it will only need five years to grow from 1 to 10 percent. That 1 percent is just the turning point," he says.

He adds that a pilot project of the so-called airbus, or transit elevated bus that can carry more than 50,000 people in Shenzhen will be tested in September. Airbus is an urban transportation project by BYD that is designed to travel 5 to 10 meters above cars and cost one-sixth of the cost of building a new subway.

The Shenzhen carmaker sold about 62,000 electric vehicles last year, an increase of more than 200 percent year-on-year.

Some analysts agree with Wang's points, saying the explosive growth of new energy vehicle sales in China is accelerating and pushing up demand for lithium batteries. But others have doubts.

Chen Qingtai, head of the China EV 100 Association, a nonprofit organization, warns that the market should avoid sacrificing product quality and safety for blind expansion.

Chen says many automakers are lowering requirements for quality control and are spending less on research and innovation. He urges automakers not to be misled by soaring sales figures because they are the result of government subsidies.

Driven by government incentives, sales of new energy vehicles climbed 131.4 percent to 126,000 in the first five months of this year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/02/2016 page26)