R&D spending

According to an investment plan unveiled in 2021, Great Wall Motors will spend 3 billion yuan ($471 million) on hydrogen-related R&D by 2024.

It plans to expand production and sales of core components and systems in China and aims to become a top 3 company in hydrogen vehicle powertrain solutions by 2025.

Mu Feng, vice-president of Great Wall Motors, said, "If we have 1 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on our roads (instead of gasoline ones), we can cut carbon emissions by 510 million metric tons a year."

Guan Qingyou, a Beijing-based economist, said the two carbon goals are arduous for a country as big as China.

"We need technology breakthroughs, and I believe hydrogen may be one of them to count on," said Guan.

German carmaker BMW is making inroads on used electric car batteries in China as NEVs gain popularity in the country, its largest market worldwide.

It sold 48,000 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids to Chinese car buyers in 2021, up 69.6 percent from 2020.

BMW said it set up a team in 2017 to collect used BMW car batteries, which are then evaluated by licensed companies to be reused as power storage units or dismantled for raw materials.

"Our ambition is nothing less than to build the greenest electric vehicles in the entire industry, all the way from raw materials and supply chain to production and ultimately recycling," said Jochen Goller, president and CEO of BMW Group Region China.

The carmaker is producing two new electric models in China this year. By 2025, electric car sales will account for at least one-fourth of its total sales in the country.

Goller said that by 2030, CO2 emissions in vehicle production in its Chinese plants will be cut by 80 percent from 2019 levels.

By the same year, it will also cut CO2 emissions through its whole supply chain by 20 percent and CO2 emissions during vehicles' usage by 40 percent from 2019 levels, he said.