Geely CEO hypes methanol cars to planners

Shanghai, March 4 (Gasgoo.com) Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd and member of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is proposing a motion to the government's industry planning bodies to work out a national standard for production of methanol-powered vehicles.

"Replacing gasoline engine cars with methanol engine cars should be encouraged because methanol engine cars are much cleaner than other types of new energy products and their production costs are lower," Li said in a proposal submitted to CPPCC on Monday.

Li suggested that the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Standardization Administration speed up the related policy making procedures and promote the use of methanol-powered vehicles nationwide.

China's central government said in January that it would subsidize purchases of clean-energy vehicles, including electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, for public fleets in 13 Chinese cities. But no details for the scheme were released.