BEIJING - Beijing plans to have around 20,000 electric taxis by the end of 2020 as part of its efforts to fight air pollution, said Wang Jianhua, president of the Beijing Taxi Association.

Eight hundred electric taxis were delivered to local taxi companies on Friday by Beijing Electric Vehicle Co (BJEV), China's largest new energy vehicle (NEV) maker.

With a cruising range of 300 km, the new taxis can change its batteries for fully-charged new ones within three minutes at battery swap stations, according to BJEV.

BJEV has already built 100 battery swap stations in Beijing, and it will set up over 190 power charging and battery swap stations in the city next year, said Zhang Xiyong, general manager of Beijing Automotive Group Co, the parent company of BJEV.

Beijing is speeding up the process of replacing its 70,000 taxis with NEVs after the municipal government issued a plan to combat air pollution in 2018, which said public vehicles would be converted to electric ones.

China has been promoting the development of NEVs in recent years to help cut pollution. The number of NEVs in the country is predicted to reach 5 million by 2020, according to Xu Yanhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.