While Lyu Huizhao, an official from the ministry, says they're applying for more EVs to promote a low-emission environment, Cai believes developing energy-efficient cars is a way for the Chinese auto industry to become stronger.

Cai also points to a trend of more EVs being used on such occasions.

"I have benefited a lot from policies and the government's resolve to develop the industry," he says.

Cai was born in 1959 in a teachers' family in East China's Shandong province.

He was admitted to Harbin University of Science and Technology in 1978.

After a master's degree in engineering, he began to teach there in 1985.

For a year from 1994, he was a visiting professor in the US and Switzerland.

Cai got a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Clarkson University in the US in 1999.

"It was both familiar and challenging for me to go back to being a professor, so I decided to join the industry," he says.

But he was sad to not see too many Chinese faces at international seminars. Finally he met Yu, his future partner, at a seminar.

In 2008, the duo started Jing Jin with 12 people.