With four or five years of efforts, there will be at least one million new-energy vehicles to be produced in China by 2012, accounting for 10% of the country's total auto output that year, a technology official in China said recently, as reported by state media today.

On a new-energy auto forum held on August 31, China's Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang first made clear the production goal of one million new-energy vehicles in 2012 in China. He said that if 10% of China-made vehicles can use new energy, the country would save 780 million liters of oil and reduced the carbon dioxide emissions by 2.3 million tons each year. But currently new-energy vehicles only have gained less than 1% market share in China.

During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August, the operation of many new-energy vehicles proved to be a great success. Wan noted that this successful practice is expected to boost the development and production of new-energy vehicles in China's auto industry. About 600 new-energy vehicles, including 55 electric-lithium-cell buses, 25 hybrid buses, 75 hybrid sedans, 20 fuel-cell sedans, and 410 electric cars, were used for ferrying athletes and spectators of the Olympics last month.

The Beijing Olympics is seen as a landmark in China's energy-efficiency drive and new-energy vehicle development. The global sports event had offered a golden opportunity for Chinese carmakers to develop new-energy vehicles independently with cutting-edge technologies, but it is no easy task to for them to produce one million such vehicles in 2012, said the minister.