During last year’s Political Season, President Xi said protecting the environment was like caring for “one’s own eyes and life”. A year later, air quality remains Beijing’s top priority. Among innovations, a clean-energy vehicle scheme is under way.

CCTV’s Wang Hui reports from Beijing.

The Division of Electric Buses of Beijing’s Public Transport Group runs all the no-track electric buses in the city.

It owns about 300 of them, but this only makes up a small fraction of the total buses in Beijing.

The core difference between new electric buses and conventional ones lies in the battery.

For the green buses, it usually takes 20 minutes for a full charge. There’s another group of electric buses with the old type battery, which needs two hours.

Despite the merits, the 600,000 yuan (over $92,300) battery price makes those no-track electric buses 50 percent more expensive than conventional ones. The small number of available charging stations also limits their popularity.

The group plans to buy 2,400 green buses this year. The number will exceed 10,000 by the end of 2020, making up about 50 percent of the total buses in Beijing.

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