Hybrid car owners seek subsidies

• Source: Ce.cn
• [09:22 May 13 2009]
• Comments

Beijing lawyer Zhang Huibin is very proud of his two-year-old car because of one feature alone its fuel efficiency.

Zhang was prepared to pay a premium for his Prius hybrid, which is double the price of a conventional car, mainly for its fuel efficiency, even though it lacks many features offered by similar priced vehicles.

"It doesn't make much noise and you tend to forget the last time you filled up the tank," he said. "That alone doesn't compensate for paying $36,640, twice the price of a conventional car of the same size. Rather, the pleasure comes from taking a stance on environmental issues."

Sales of Toyota's Prius have exceeded 1.25 million globally, but only 3,500 of the sedans have been sold in China since they were introduced in the country three years ago. [Agencies]

However, even as he encourages more people to buy hybrid cars, Zhang and fellow Prius owner Hong Yan, from China National Automotive Industry Import and Export Corporation, have submitted a petition to several government departments calling for subsidies to private buyers of environmentally friendly cars.

"Hybrid cars are the best choice when it comes to saving energy and cutting emissions," they said in the petition. "If 10 percent of Bejing's 3.6 million cars were replaced with hybrid ones, it would save about 2 million liters of gasoline annually and also greatly improve air quality."

Government subsidies for hybrid car owners is a hot topic in an Internet chat group, set up by Zhang, which already has 108 Prius owners as members.

Public service sectors such as sanitation, mass transit and the postal service get subsidies for green vehicles hybrid cars, electric cars or fuel cell cars. The departments are given discounts of up to $7,324, $8,788 and $36,618 respectively.

Members of the group are unanimous in their support for government subsidies and see it as vital to support the nascent market for green cars. They also believe that the subsidies will encourage people's awareness about them.

Countries such as the United States and Japan have long been offering subsidies on green cars.