May 25 – China is set to release the details of its green car subsidy program later this month, with measures to subsidize the buyers of green vehicles and boost domestic purchases of electric and hybrid cars.

The subsidy program has already been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and is now waiting for the final approval from the State Council. The program will offer maximum subsidies of RMB60,000 (US$8,785) for clean-energy car buyers, with an effort to cut back vehicle emissions in the growing auto market.

Different subsidies are mainly based on the cars’ energy-saving efficiency levels. The pilot program is likely to be first carried out in five selected cities (currently unidentified), and later will be expanded to 13 to 20 cities.