China has selected 15 cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, as pilot locations to expand the coverage of new energy vehicles for public services.

In a plan released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that, with joint effort from seven other departments including the Ministry of Transport, the project would see the expansion of vehicles in the public services sector — government cars, buses, sanitary trucks, taxis, delivery and urban logistics vehicles, airport shuttles and heavy-haul trucks for special occasions. The goal is to have 600,000 new energy vehicles in public service in these cities.

To support the expansion, some 700,000 charging stations and 7,800 battery swapping stations will be built in these cities, the plan said.

Based on the levels of overall socioeconomic growth, automobile industry development and current status of NEVs, the ministry selected five cities each from three categories.

For metropolises, in addition to Beijing and Shenzhen, the ministry included Chongqing, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Zhengzhou in Henan province. Tangshan in Hebei province is chosen as a pilot in the second category for its development of electric heavy-haul trucks, while Haikou in Hainan province is listed in the third category as the Hainan Island is expected to stop selling gasoline-powered vehicles by 2030.

The ministry also listed the 15 cities' respective goals in the number of NEVs and charging and battery swap stations, as well as priorities in industry development, such as the domestic manufacturing of key components, next-generation charging technology and autopilot technology.

It is hoped that the pilot project will bring "replicable" and "expandable" experience and patterns in the NEVs sector, so that it can guide the full marketization of NEVs and lead the construction of a nationwide green and low-carbon transportation system, the ministry said.

The ministry did not specify the time range of the targets brought up in Tuesday's plan. In an earlier statement released in February soliciting local applications for pilot status, the ministry said the plan would be effective from this year to 2025, adding that pilot cities should try to increase the ratio to 80 percent for newly purchased or renewed urban buses, sanitation vehicles, taxis and urban delivery and logistics vehicles.