EVLN(Beijing may license electric bikes)-long

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

EVLN(Beijing may license electric bikes)-long
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
 informational purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
 --- {EVangel}
http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2002-07-29/79811.html
Beijing may license electric bikes  (LIU LI) 07/29/2002

Beijing's municipal government is discussing the status of
electric bicycles and whether to give them city permits. A
ruling is expected later this year.

This could mean some noteworthy progress if they get
official recognition because the capital has hundreds of
thousands of owners who have been caught up in a debate over
the matter for several years.

"We have submitted reports on licensing them to the
municipal government for approval," said one Beijing Vehicle
Management Office official who declined to be identified.

The electric-powered bicycle, which has a top speed 20
kilometres per hour, is a fairly recent development.

A draft of a traffic safety law is under discussion by the
National People's Congress. The draft proposes that any
motorized vehicles with a speed of less than 20 kilometres
per hour and a weight of less than 40 kilograms be
designated a non-motorized vehicle.

If the congress passes the bill, it could provide a legal
basis for ending the quarrel over what kind of vehicle this
is, according to Wang Bin, head of the Beijing-based Green
Human Environment Institute.

The Public Security Ministry's Traffic Management Bureau
says that local governments can develop their own policies
on electric bicycles, judging from their traffic conditions,
said Wu Jun, a bureau official.

Shanghai, Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, and several other
cities, are already issuing licences for the bicycles.

Although Wu said they expected that some electric bicycles
will be licensed this year in Beijing, they could be
outlawed in future because of safety concerns (mainly their
speed) and the pollution problem the used batteries pose.

Still, they have their defenders. "Electric bicycles seem to
be the best choice for me in getting to work," said Li
Liang, a 38-year-old accountant in Beijing. "It's tiring to
ride an ordinary bicycle to work, which is far from my home.
And, I'm afraid of traffic jams if I ride the bus."

Electric bicycles have been sold in China for several years
although they have not been permitted to operate on certain
streets or roads in many places.

At the end of last year, there were more than 400 factories
producing 400,000 electric bikes a year.

===

http://news.findlaw.com/international/s/20020726/chinaolympicsdc.html
Beijing Plans Olympic Crackdown on Car Fumes

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing plans to ban vehicles failing to
meet European emission standards from January to reduce
pollution in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics Games, state
media said on Friday.

The Chinese capital, long criticized as excessively
polluted, would ban the sale and use of vehicles failing to
meet emission standards in place in Europe since 1996, they
said.
[...]
"We are emulating the Europe II standards...All refineries
will have to be producing the new-spec gasoline from end of
this year," said an official with China's top oil company
PetroChina.

The move to ban so-called dirty cars could help reduce major
pollutants by half, state-run Xinhua news quoted the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) as saying.

SEPA required car manufacturers to apply for a certificate
that models were deemed fit for the city's roads, the
official China Daily paper said.

Almost 80 percent of all light vehicles and half the heavy
vehicles in China already meet European emission standards,
the newspaper quoted a senior official at Beijing's
environmental protection bureau as saying.

In April, state media unveiled plans by traffic clogged
Beijing to spend $106 million on developing electric
vehicles to be used for transport services during the
Olympics.

The Beijing city government has promised to spend hundreds
of millions of dollars on cleaning up the environment and
moving dirty factories away from the city center in time for
the Olympics. 
Copyright © Reuters 2002. All rights reserved.

===

EVLN(
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
 informational purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
 --- {EVangel}
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20020731_1.html 
China Said to Spend on $2.5B Research Report Says China to
Spend $2.5 Billion on Scientific, Technological Research
The Associated Press

B E I J I N G, July 31 — China is planning to pump 20
billion yuan ($2.5 billion) into a dozen science and
technology projects in the next three to five years, the
official Communist party newspaper reported Wednesday.

The research and development projects will be centered
around electric vehicles, integrated circuits, herbal
medicine modernization, dairy development and water- saving
agriculture, the People's Daily said.

The projects are expected to help China "rapidly command a
host of cutting-edge technologies in the 21st century, make
significant technological breakthroughs and get
industrialized in three to five years," the newspaper said,
quoting sources from the Ministry of Science and
Technology.

The projects, some of which have already been started,
involve 22 provinces and municipalities.

Since China's entry into the World Trade Organizatoin last
year, top officials have promised to spend money on projects
that will encourage the inflow of investment, skills and
technology.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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