Government efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions would possibly help boost demand for electric vehicle which likely would be part of the Chinese mass market as soon as 2015, Nissan (China) Investment president Yasuaki Hashimoto said on Monday.

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“Electric vehicles could reach a mass market earlier than we think,” he told Dow Jones at the Shanghai motor show.


The Renault-Nissan alliance last week agreed a partnership with China’s ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) for a pilot programme that, it said, would be a first step in bringing zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) to the country.


Nissan also said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Wuhan municipal government as the first pilot city for zero emission mobility for further development of planning.


Hashimoto said in Shanghai that the government could take steps to favour electric cars over other types of environmentally friendly vehicles to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as they don’t produce any exhaust gas.


He added that Nissan’s major challenge would be to cut production costs.

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