China plans to ban petrol and diesel cars

Following in the footsteps of many European countries, China has now announced a plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles to combat its increasingly dangerous air pollution issue.

Xin Guobin, the vice minister of transport in the world’s largest car market, told China’s official news agency Xinhua, "Those measures will certainly bring profound changes for our car industry's development”.

The new law in support of the ban is expected to see at least 20 percent of cars sold to be electric and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles by 2025.

While the country has not confirmed a start date for the ban, Chinese manufacturers are expected to ensure that eight percent of their sales are for EVs or PHEVs by the end of 2018. The figure is expected to rise to 12 percent by 2020.

The ban will also extend to foreign manufacturers like Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen and Mercedes, who produce cars with Chinese partners in the country.

The plans drawn up by China are similar to those announced by the UK, France and Germany earlier this year.