China’s new energy vehicle industry rose to the fourth position in the world in 2016 after improvements in competiveness, says the Blue Book of New Energy Vehicle: Annual Report on New Energy Vehicle Industry in China (2017), Science and Technology Daily reported on August 7.

The report, recently released by China Automotive Technology and Research Center and the Social Sciences Academic Press, says the competiveness index of the U.S. in 2016 topped the global list, followed by Japan, Germany, China and South Korea.

The rise of China’s ranking can be attributed to sustained political support, gradual maturity of technologies and rapid growth of production and sales of the country’s new energy vehicles.

The report points out that development of China’s new energy vehicles, compared to developed countries, faces the hurdle of relatively low competiveness, high cost, inadequate infrastructure and low key technical levels.

However, experts say they are bullish about the future of China’s new energy vehicle industry with growing political support, accelerated development and rising market demand in the last two years.