Ouyang Minggao, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, said China's pledge to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is expected to stimulate greater innovation in the new-energy vehicles (NEVs) industry.

Ouyang, also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Tsinghua University, said that although the current auto market is still dominated by fossil fuel and hybrid vehicles, technical breakthroughs that are expected in pure electric or hydrogen-powered cars have become an inevitable trend in line with the carbon neutrality strategy.

To reduce emissions, NEVs will increasingly rely on renewable resources such as wind and solar power, which will make such vehicles more efficient and cheaper to run, with the exception of the high cost of storing electricity, Ouyang said.

He championed hydrogen fuel cells as a viable option to power vehicles for longer driving distances and tackle seasonal variations in solar irradiance or wind resources.

Some argue that the conversion efficiency of hydrogen is low, but this view is through the prism of fossil energy resources and actually cannot hold up to closer inspection because hydrogen being a kind of renewable energy means the essential question about hydrogen technology comes down to the cost, according to the professor.

He also said China has now a clear vision for NEV development and also bright market prospects after 20 years of industry development.

The number of registered NEVs in China was 4.92 million by the end of 2020, an increase of nearly 30 percent year on year, statistics from the Ministry of Public Security showed. NEV sales this year are projected to reach 2 million units and pure electric vehicles are expected to account for 80 percent of all NEVs.

Ouyang said China's NEV industry is among the best in the world in several core fields, including batteries, motors and electric controls, and may also gain an upper hand in the sector's digital transformation because the next big change will mainly come from ICT (information and communications technology) instead of traditional vehicle makers.

He also emphasized that China clearly lags behind other countries in terms of basic research, while the manufacturing industry has merely moved from the low end to the medium end of the value chain. However, China's market size will attract investment and technology, he said.