Shanghai October 22 (Gasgoo.com) German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) signed on October 20 the "Sino-German cooperation in electric vehicles and climate protection project implementation agreement" with China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATARC) to jointly promote new energy vehicle industrialization in China, sohu.com reported Friday.
The agreement points out cooperation in four major fields, including research on effect of industrialization of new energy vehicles, formulation of relevant standards and policies for new energy vehicles, research on battery recycling and exploration of business models of new energy vehicles through a combination of pilot program. GTZ and China Automotive Technology plans to put the project into implementation during 2011-2013.
"The cooperation will focus on promotion, implementation and industrialization of the new energy vehicles," Zhao Hang, Director of China Automotive Technology & Research Center said.
Electric vehicles are the future of automobiles, and we hope China and German can work together to develop strategy for cooperation in this field, GTZ 's Chief Representative in China said. In the meanwhile, GTZ Project Director said implementation of this project is not to change the existing policies, but to ensure these policies can truly meet the requirements of environmental protection in the future.
The project has received a positive response from German automaker Volkswagen, which has also signed a cooperation agreement with GTZ and China Automotive Technology towards the project. Besides, Daimler, BMW, Siemens have sent representatives to the signing ceremony. Volkswagen will provide the project data, special technologies and experience obtained in its development of electric vehicles.
According to Volkswagen's global electric vehicle strategy kicked off in March 2010, the automaker will import its hybrid and electric vehicle technologies into China and start local production of the electric vehicles in 2013-2014.
While German companies are gearing up to promote electric vehicles in the Chinese market, Renault-Nissan Alliance has instead reduced the scale of its EV Pilot Program- a cooperation established with the Wuhan Government- from 300 Nissan electric vehicles to the current 25 units.
