Guangzhou to replace all buses with 'new energy' vehicles

Guangzhou's petrol-powered buses will soon be a thing of the past. Starting this year, the southern Chinese city will begin replacing the thousands of public buses with greener, more energy-efficient vehicles.

According to the new plan, all buses that use petrol and diesel will be replaced with pure electric buses by 2020, meaning Guangzhou will have about 30,000 new energy public vehicles including buses and taxies by 2020.

To attract individual consumers of electric cars, Guangzhou also plans to lower electric vehicles prices, reduce maintenance costs and build more charging stations. More than 120,000 individual electric cars are expected to be on the streets in the city by 2020.

According to the new measures, the number of parking spaces with electric car chargers is no less than 30 percent of the total parking seats in new office buildings, shopping malls and restaurants. The city plans 100,000 charging piles by 2020.

Guangzhou is now seeking public opinions on the plan.