China starts promoting special license plates for new energy vehicles nationwide from Monday, as announced by the Traffic Management Bureau of the Public Security Ministry at a meeting last Thursday.

Twelve more cities, besides the five existing pilot regions including Shanghai, will be the first batch to carry out the deployment, including Baoding and Langfang in north China’s Hebei Province, Changchun in northeast China’s Jilin Province, Hefei in east China’s Anhui Province, and other cities in south China.

The special license plates are expected to be issued in all provincial capitals and part of prefecture-level cities by the end of 2017 and the whole country in the first half of 2018.

An employee of the Jinan vehicle administration department installs a plate on an electric car in Jinan, Shandong province, Dec 1, 2016. /China Daily Photo

Symbolizing “green, environment-friendly, scientific,” the new plates use green as the base color, different from the traditional blue ones. Applied with a specialized mark, new materials and anti-counterfeiting technology, they are easy to be recognized and managed.

Compared to general vehicle plates, more numbers will be available for the special plates, as they will have an additional digit, from previous five to six. The cost remains the same, 100 yuan (about 16 US dollars) for each.

The number of new energy vehicles in China has reached 1.018 million. /Photo via chinanews.cn

New registrants of new energy cars will be given a special license, and existing car owners can choose to replace their plates.

China has been encouraging the use of new energy vehicles. The number has soared to 1.018 million units, according to the Bureau, among which 825,000 are full electric, and 193,000 plug-in hybrid electric.