Bangkok: Hainan aims to stop selling gasoline-powered cars by 2030 and shift its focus entirely to new electric vehicles (NEVs).
According to Thai News Agency, Hainan Province in southern China's 2026-2030 National Ecological Civilization Demonstration Zone Plan aims to end the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. All new vehicles replacing older ones for personal, public service, and commercial use in Hainan Province must be new energy vehicles (NEVs), excluding vehicles for special purposes.
The plan states that the proportion of new energy vehicles in all vehicles in Hainan Province will increase from 23.75% in 2025 to 45% by 2030. Hainan will also improve its charging infrastructure network, maintaining a vehicle-to-charging station ratio below 2.5:1. Simultaneously, Hainan will expand offshore wind power, pioneer integrated wind-solar power projects, and build numerous offshore solar power demonstration projects to meet the growing demand for clean energy.
Hainan Province was the first provincial-level region in China to announce a goal to end the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2030, in 2018. This plan underscored efforts to achieve this goal and sparked online discussion, reaffirming China's commitment to carbon reduction and promoting new energy vehicles, while Western nations reversed their environmental protection policies. For example, the European Commission announced plans to ease the ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by the end of 2025, by 2035.
According to the Hainan Provincial Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, the local new energy vehicle (NEV) adoption rate will reach 67.14% by October 2025. This means that two-thirds of newly registered vehicles on Hainan Island will be NEGOS (New Energy Vehicles). Over the past five years, Hainan has ranked first in China for NEGOS adoption rate and second in China for the proportion of NEGOS owned.
Furthermore, the rapid transition to new energy vehicles is supported by the transformation of Hainan Province's energy structure. As of the end of June 2026, Hainan's new energy installed capacity, mainly from solar and wind power, accounted for 50.1% of the total local installed capacity.
Furthermore, China launched new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in September 2025, which include reducing the net greenhouse gas emissions of the entire economy by 7-10 percent from peak levels, increasing the proportion of non-fossil fuels in the total energy structure to more than 30 percent, and expanding installed wind and solar power capacity by more than six times the 2020 levels.