IEA upbeat about China's role in electric vehicle development

China has great opportunities in its pursuit of environment-friendly electric vehicles by learning from and sharing other countries' experience, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said Friday.

"I have no doubt China is moving toward the direction of electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids, because this technology is new," Tanaka said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua after a two-day forum on the Electric Vehicles Initiative at the Paris Motor Show.

China faces great opportunities by setting up global standards for the future market, Tanaka said.

Joined by China, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United States, the IEA initiative calls on countries to launch pilot programs for electric car demonstrations to promote research, development and information collection and sharing on electric vehicles.

China's role is to participate in many of the international cooperation frameworks like the IEA and by doing so, it can learn a lot of best practices in other countries, he said.

China itself needs to explore more efficient and environment-friendly energy sources. According to official data, China became the largest auto producer and market in the world last year, but it now still imports more than 50 percent of its oil needs. Besides, huge increases in oil consumption has contributed to worsening environmental problems, including urban air quality.

Therefore, since 2001, the Chinese government has launched a number of research programs on energy-efficient and new-energy vehicles.

"China's problem is to how to supply electricity carbon-free, as China now heavily relies on coal, therefore the power structure or power generation structure is probably a big issue for China," Tanaka said.

Nevertheless, Tanaka voiced optimism about China's future market. On China's relatively lower level of new car technologies, Tanaka said: "Everybody is starting" because of the novelty of new technology.

"In China, there is a huge growing market in the future. They are now investing very heavily in new technologies, so I'm very optimistic about what China will do in the future."

Over the past 10 years, the Chinese government has invested more than 2 billion RMB (298.5 million U.S. dollars) in electric vehicle research, and many innovative alliances between universities, research institutes and enterprises have been set up, China's Science and technology Minister Wan Gang said in a video address to the forum.

Internationally, it maintains bilateral programs with the United States, Germany and Canada.

And at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the ongoing Shanghai World Expo, more than 1,500 electric cars have been deployed at the venues.

According to David Sandalow, the U.S. assistant secretary for policy and international affairs, Sino-U.S. programs on electric vehicle development is "very successful."

"I've seen the heavy investment going into electric vehicles in China and I think that's helping to shape the global market place," Sandalow told Xinhua.

International collaboration can help China in setting up an electric mobility system of global standards, Tanaka also said.

"Everybody wants to join in the Chinese market, competing in new technologies," he said. "Everyone believes China is going to be a huge growing market for transportation."