China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab: UC Davis and China Forge Landmark Accord to Speed Development of Clean Vehicles

In a landmark international collaboration on clean vehicle adoption, the University of California, Davis, and the China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) will work together to help speed the commercialization of plug-in and fuel cell electric cars in China and the United States under an agreement signed in Tianjin, China in September 2014.

Yunshi Wang, Director of the China Center for Energy and Transportation (C-CET) at ITS-Davis, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on accelerating the commercialization of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs).

The five-year MOU establishes the China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab, a partnership between UC Davis and CATARC, the administrative body that oversees and regulates many activities of the auto industry in China, the world’s largest new-car market. ITS-Davis and the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy are the primary UC Davis partners.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB), the world’s leader on clean vehicle policies, and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a major Chinese government agency, have supported the agreement and will co-chair the new entity’s advisory board. Major international and Chinese automotive and energy companies will also be invited to participate.

Read ITS-Davis Founding Director Daniel Sperling’s account of the China-U.S. ZEV Policy Lab in the GreenLight blog.

Read the full UC Davis press release here.

Read a March 2015 op-ed in The Sacramento Bee by Yunshi Wang, Dan Sperling and Alberto Ayala here.