The Taipei County Government is working on a plan to exempt drivers of electric vehicles from paying power recharging and parking fees as part of an expanded program to promote the environmentally friendly vehicles and cut down on greenhouse gases.

Owners of electric vehicles can have their batteries recharged at designated parking lots, enabling them to save at least NT$60,000 per year in parking fees alone, plus further saving on fuel costs. The project is expected to help encourage more motorists and motorcyclists to switch to electric models when purchasing new vehicles. Officials said the county government has been aggressively pushing forward the development of electric vehicles in recent years.

There are presently free parking spaces and power recharging stations for motorcycles at some parking lots along the Xianmin (County Citizens) Boulevard. Similar facilities for cars will be added to 60 parking lots scattered around the county next year with a fund of NT$ 20 million (US$ 619,000), they said.

The county administration decided to take more concrete steps to slash carbon dioxide emissions and stem global warming effects after Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei returned from a United Nations meeting on climate change held recently in Copenhagen.

Officials said the county will become the first local administration throughout Taiwan to provide such facilities free of costs for people who choose electric vehicles.

The move by Taipei County, which is poised to be upgraded in 2010 to a status of special municipality, as enjoyed by Taipei City, will help improve the air quality in adjacent capital Taipei since most vehicles in the county frequently shuttle between the county and the capital all year round.

The county will also coordinate with the central government to offer extra incentives like subsidies to those who decide to use electric vehicles because the purchasing costs are comparatively higher than vehicles running on traditional fossil fuels, they said.

There are already imported hybrid vehicles operating on petrol and electricity available on the local market. But the pure electric vehicles running entirely on electric power assembled here will start hitting the domestic market next year.

The Yulon Motor Group, a leading automaker in Taiwan, is ready to roll out its mass production of electric vehicles next year.

Pihsiang Machinery Mfg. Co. of the Pihsiang Group, a leading supplier of C-LiFe PO4 batteries, has been exploring the opportunity of developing and production of electric vehicles through cooperation with Chinese automakers as the central government prepares to scrap more restrictions on Chinese investments in Taiwan.