Prompted by a series of preferential government policies, Wu Lingyu abandoned her plan to buy a petrol-driven car. She decided to buy a battery-powered one instead.

Wu, a 36-year-old white-collar worker in the east China city of Hefei, said she only needs 80,000 yuan (US$12,121) for an electric vehicle (EV) worth 150,000 yuan.

"That is because I can get a 60,000 yuan subsidy from the central government and 10,000 yuan from the local government," she said.

"And, if I am one of the first 500 buyers of battery-operated cars in Hefei, the local electricity authorities will also install a charging facility near my home for free," she said.

What's more, Wu said, she can save money.

"A petrol-driven car consumes about 10 liters of oil for every 100 km and that costs about 60 yuan. A battery-operated car consumes about 14 kwh of electricity for every 100 km and that costs only about eight yuan," she said.

"If I drive a long way, I can install a range-extender on the car, which can charge the battery while I am driving," she added.

The Chinese government introduced policies this year to boost the new-energy auto industry.

Hefei is one of five Chinese cities in the pilot program for the new subsidies. The other four are Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

According to the new policy, the central government pays a subsidy of up to 50,000 yuan to any citizen that buys a plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) and 60,000 yuan for an all-electric, or battery-electric vehicle (BEV).

Local governments also paying subsidies.

In Hefei, BEV buyers can receive a 10,000-20,000 yuan local government subsidy and in Shanghai they can get 40,000-50,000 yuan.

China has a goal for the future development of the new-energy auto industry. It aims to have more than 500,000 BEV and PHEV cars on the road by 2015 and 5 million by 2020, the development plan on China's energy-efficient and new-energy autos unveiled in September said.

China had a total of 199 million motor vehicles on its roads at the end of September, including 85 million cars, according to the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

"By 2020, the number of cars in China is likely to hit 200 million, which will make problems like energy security, environment protection and traffic congestion more prominent," said Prof. Liu Gang at the School of Economics at Tianjin-based Nankai University.

"Therefore, it will be inevitable the use of new-energy vehicles will increase," he said.