Shanghai's new regulations on encouraging citizens to purchase and use new-energy vehicles took effect on March 1.

Local consumers can apply for special license plates for new-energy \r\nvehicles free of charge if they own only one such vehicle and it is for \r\nnon-operational use, according to the regulations.

However, consumers who plan to buy plug-in hybrid vehicles should \r\nalready have charging facilities in Shanghai and not own any cars \r\nregistered as non-operational status, although motorcycles are excluded.

In a bid to promote the use of NEVs, Shanghai will upgrade existing \r\npublic charging points into fast-charging ones and aim to build a \r\nnetwork with 10,000 charging points. Meanwhile, the city will produce \r\nover 10,000 fuel-cell vehicles with 70 charging stations by 2025.

Shanghai aims to become a global hub for new-energy vehicles. \r\nAccording to SAIC Motor, a major Chinese carmaker based in Shanghai, \r\nsales of the company's NEVs reached 320,000 units in 2020, up 77.8 \r\npercent year on year. On Jan 18, US electric car-maker Tesla started \r\ndelivering its Model Y vehicles, which are made at its Shanghai factory.