(Yicai Global) June 14 -- China is considering renewing its new energy vehicle tax break policy that expires in December, according to a vice minister.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other related agencies are studying whether to widen the preferential tax policy for buying an electric car, Xin Guobin said at a press conference today. The policy, which first came into effect in 2014, is scheduled to expire this year after multiple extensions.

China's total NEV sales reached 11.1 million units as of May 31, according to Xin. Production and sales have topped global figures for seven straight years, he added. Some 2.6 million charging piles and nearly 1,300 battery swap stations had been set up as of Dec. 31, 2021, forming the world's largest charging network. Moreover, Chinese cities are launching pilots to make vehicles such as buses, taxis, and street sweepers electric, he added.

For autonomous driving, the MIIT will introduce functional requirements, information security, and other key standards, said Xin. Moreover, the ministry will carry out access trials timely to push the development of the intelligent connected vehicles sector, he added.

Xin also talked about getting back to normal after the Covid-19 pandemic. Businesses are orderly resuming work and production and the industrial economy is expected to go back on track as soon as possible as relevant policies come into play, per Xin.

China's government whitelists have 22,500 firms and all of them have resumed operations while most of them have returned to pre-pandemic capacity, said Xin. In the Yangtze River Delta, large industrial enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui provinces have done better than expected in reaching their targets. Moreover, more than 96 percent of big industrial enterprises in Shanghai have resumed work, and over 70 percent of them have reached their target capacities, he concluded.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi