Electrically-operated cars are China's hope to catch up with the world's advanced economies, according to Chen Qingquan, a leading electrodynamics expert and also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE).

"Independent development, possession of intellectual property and mass production will be crucial for Chinese automobile makers to materialize that hope," said Chen, in this capital of southern Hainan island province to attend a five-day ongoing international environmentally-friendly automobile fair that opened Wednesday.

A total of 41 domestic and overseas automobile manufacturers are attending the fair, bringing along with them more than 100 kinds of environmentally-friendly cars.

China is almost on a par with the world's advanced nations in terms of developing electrically-powered cars, which include battery-powered autos, internal combustion engine-cum-electric autos, and fuel cell autos, but it lags far behind from the viewpoint of the development of motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, Chen explained.

He predicted that the future auto era would be that of electrically-powered cars, because the market share of electrically-operated autos will keep growing in the decades to come, in sharp contrast to the dwindling market for petroleum-fueled autos.

Chen said he hoped that the Chinese government would adopt preferential policies, such as giving tax cuts and financial subsidies to buyers of electrically-powered cars, to boost the development of such cars, the marketing of which has remained sluggish because of high cost and limited travel scope.

The development of environment-friendly automobiles in China was launched in the late 1980s, to which the Chinese government has attached great importance.

And China's "863" high-tech scheme prioritized the development of such cars. In accordance with the requirements laid out in the scheme, sophisticated technologies for mass production of fuel cell autos and relevant automobile prototypes should be available by 2005.

Meanwhile, electrically-powered autos are also supposed to be among the model motorcade for the Beijing Olympic Games, to be held in 2008.

A number of Chinese auto makers have already turned out environmentally-friendly electrically powered cars. And electrically-powered and internal combustion engine-cum-electric buses are already in operation on a trial basis in such major cities as Beijing, Tianjin and Wuhan.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2004)