Jianghuai Automobile Co (JAC), one of China's 10 largest automakers, will deliver 100 electric vehicles to an electric carmaker in the US on Wednesday.

The vehicles, part of 2,000 units purchased by the US-based GreenTech Automotive (GTA), will be delivered from Hefei, Anhui province, where JAC is located, while the other 1,900 will be shipped from there in the near future.

Charles Wang, chairman and CEO of GTA, said: "We believe that the well-recognized high quality of JAC vehicles will win trust and recognition from the American consumers."

She Cairong, deputy general manager of JAC, said his company's new electric vehicle models have "upgraded driver modules, improved battery capacity, and range and performance improvements for speed, climbing and stability". The battery enables the car to run for about 160 kilometers, he said.

GTA inked an agreement with JAC in 2012 to bring 2,000 battery-powered electric vehicles to the US market. And after more than one and a half years of research and development (R & D), the Chinese automaker formally reached an agreement to export the vehicles to the US.

But there has not yet been any information on which types of vehicles JAC will send to its US partner.

GTA is a US-based automotive manufacturer dedicated to the production and development of environmentally friendly, energy-efficient vehicles.

JAC, founded in 1964, has more than 50 years of experience in making vehicles such as light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks, sedans, buses and more. And the state-owned firm produced nearly 500,000 vehicles and more than 220,000 engines in 2013.

JAC has also established an extensive international network, including export relationships with more than 120 countries and two national level technology centers for R&D - one in Turin, Italy and the other in Tokyo.

Sales of electric vehicles in China are expected to climb more rapidly in the future, as the country is continuing to encourage the use of such vehicles to cut emissions.

On Friday, in the Chinese government's latest effort to push the sales of green vehicles, China said it would offer additional tax breaks on purchases of Chinese-made electric vehicles.

China most recently renewed its private-buyer subsidies for energy-efficient vehicles just last year, according to an Aug 29 report from Reuters. Under that program, the Chinese government now provides nearly $10,000 in subsidies for an all-electric battery car and more than $5,500 toward a hybrid electric vehicle.

The State Council, China's cabinet, has called on the domestic auto industry to achieve production and sales targets of 500,000 pure-electric (battery-powered) and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2015, as part of the country's larger effort to put 5 million electric and/or hybrid vehicles on the road by 2020.

Jack Freifelder in New York contributed to this story.

zhulixin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 09/03/2014 page2)