Electric cars will replace current motor vehicles during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in serving Olympic family members and tourists, to fulfill Beijing's commitments that all vehicles used during the event burn clean energy.

By the time the Olympics take place, a motorcade consisting of domestic electric vehicles will take shape, expected to be the biggest fleet of its kind in China, according to Fan Boyuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Science and Technology.

The city has also assured that all the other buses and taxis provided to the Games use clean energy such as natural gas to guarantee a "Green Olympics."

As part of the 863 National High Technology Plan by the Ministry of Science and Technology during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), a special research project on electric vehicles began last year with an investment of 880 million yuan (US$106 million).

The research resulted in the establishment of China's first ever electric motorcar industrialized production base this month in Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province, Xinhua reported.

With an investment of 200 million yuan (US$24 million), the base is expected to achieve industrialization in the production of electric cars in the coming three years, said Huang Zhaoqin, manager of the Dongfeng Electrical Motorcar Company.

The waste gas released by this experimental car 50 percent less than the traditional cars.

Cars have become the choice means of transport for 20 percent of the people in the city compared to only 9 percent 10 years ago, according to statistics released by the Beijing Transport Development Research Center.

Beijing now owns at least 2.5 million motor vehicles, which have put pressure on the road network and the environment of the capital.

This has led some experts to advise adopting restrictive policies to bring this sharp increase of cars under control.

"Although there is no clear restriction upon privately owned cars now, I advise the municipal government to adopt measures in guiding the usage of cars in a more reasonable way," said Liu Xiaoming, vice-president of Beijing Polytechnic University.

(China Daily September 20, 2002)