China sets 5b-yuan subsidy for rural auto market

Shanghai, March 6 (Gasgoo.com) China will earmark five billion yuan ($732 million) as subsidy to support selling "vehicles to the countryside" and related rules will take effect as soon as possible, Li Yizhong, director of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), was quoted by Beijing News as saying.

There is still a lot of work to do though the "vehicles to countryside" scheme has been carried out from March 1, Li said. Under the current principle, the five-billion-yuan subsidy will mainly cover farmers' buying vehicles with engines below 1.3L or who replace their polluting three-wheel vehicles with new clean ones. The program is expected to stimulate sales of one million vehicles, Li added.

According to Li, the government hasn't considered whether the auto industry stimulus plan cover vehicles with 1.8L engines. He said the key is to put the approved policy to good effect.