Where is the world’s biggest fleet of electric vehicles? Perhaps it is in a more cosmopolitan western city such as San Francisco, New York, London or Paris? Actually its not so surprising to learn that is in Shenzhen, the home of BYD Auto. BYD in recent years strived to put its electric know how onto the roads, however it has come across road blocks such as low consumer take up but at the same time it has found good customers in fleet users that are eager to take on EV’s to lower running costs and again good publicity in the process.

Shenzhen City government has signed a deal with BYD to take on another 1500 EV’s from the company which will be a mixture of 1000 K9 electric buses and 500 E6 passenger vehicles. Shenzhen’s  Development and Reform Comittee (SDRC) have been pushing hard to introduce more EV’s into the city to lower running costs and improve the environmental situation in the area, the NDRC’s director Mr. Lu Xiangshen commented: “Shenzhen is the first city in China to  implement  a subsidy for new energy vehicles and the first city to launch consumer sales of the BYD e6.” The fleet of E6 taxis around Shenzhen have already given consumers a taste of electric cars and the city was one of the first in China to announce subsidies for EV’s

Shenzhen city government are contemplating introducing other incentive policies include allowing pure electric drivers to use the public bus  lane  during  rush  hour,  discounted insurance privileges, and free annual maintenance checks. China’s Southern Power Grid Company has agreed to install free-of-charge, two electric vehicle charging poles for each Shenzhen EV driver — one at the home or apartment of the driver and another near or at the driver’s place of  business.  Shenzhen  City  continues  to  offer extremely affordable peak and off-peak electricity prices for new energy  vehicle users, reducing nightly charging costs to only 0.3yuan RMB per KWh (~$0.04 USD/KWh equivalent). The SDRC predicts that private alternative energy vehicle use in  Shenzhen  will  increase by  over  3000  units  in  2012 and  plans  to  install  and  support  over  6,000 new  charging  pedestals