Chinese scientists have made a remarkable progress in developing pollution-free electric vehicles, now that the commercialization of such cars has been listed as a key part of the country's science plan for the next decade.

In fact, the first experimental fuel cell-powered car has already been developed, laying a good foundation for introducing clean and environmentally friendly vehicles during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Ministry of Science and Technology told China Daily.

Such cars produce fewer emissions than gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles, and may produce zero emissions. Some will be put into special transport services for the Games, according to Shao Liqin, an official of the ministry's High-Tech Development and Industrialization Department.

Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, in central China's Hubei Province, and Weihai, in east China's Shandong Province, have been selected as pilot areas to employ a number of electric buses. Several such buses are operating in Wuhan, the department said.

By 2007, commercialization of the electric buses should be realized in Beijing and Shanghai, and expanded to 10 other cities by 2015, the 21st Century Economic Report said recently.

Air quality from pollution in major cities is a serious problem with car emissions a major contributor.

To make the sky bluer and air cleaner in urban areas, the ministry wants Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and 13 other cities to introduce cars powered dually by high-performance, low-cost batteries along with a mix of cleaner-burning fuels in the next two years.

China first acknowledged the importance of electric vehicles in 1996 at an international exhibition on electric and clean-fuel vehicles.

The country has conducted technological exchanges with the United States, Germany, Japan, France and Italy to push domestic development of such cars.

It developed fuel cells in the 1990s, with Dalian Chemistry and Physics Institute, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and other research institutes cooperating.

China, which has to import oil to feed its growing appetite for energy, relies on coal to provide 75 percent of its power needs.

Coal will continue to be a large part of the country's energy supply, experts say

Scientists have been working for the past few years to develop natural gas powered cars.

By last October, 190,000 such vehicles were running in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing and a dozen other cities, with 560 stations providing fill-ups.

(China Daily March 22, 2004)