China and Nissan to Pilot "New Energy" Cars

Where would you plan a pilot project for electric cars? A large city? Small city? The People's Republic of China has chosen the city of Wuhan--population 9 million!

Actually, Wuhan is one of 13 cities, including China's largest cities, where pilots will be undertaken. Some 60,000 electric battery, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars will be tested. China hopes to produce 500,000 such "new energy" cars by 2011.

Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province. It is a major transportation hub that sits along both the Yangtze and Han Rivers. Wuhan has over 9 million residents, which makes it similar in size to Chicago in terms of population. That's if you count the greater Chiacgo metropolitan area which stretches into Indiana and Wisconsin.

It appears that Nissan and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will jointly conduct the test of electric vehicles and a network of charging stations. Nissan is making a major effort to develop electric vehicles. It has already begun a pilot in Japan south of Tokyo. Some 1,000 charge stations are planned there within the next five years.

Wuhan skyline.

Quick Vue: This video will show you images of Wuhan.

Sources for this post include The Wall Street Journal and Wikipedia.