As China, the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, looks for ways to curtail its carbon footprint, one possible solution has attracted much attention from the government, industry leaders and media: "green" cars.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, 15 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people, or almost 200 million, have driver's licenses. With a market that grew 59 percent last year to overtake the U.S. as the largest passenger vehicle market in the world – more than 10 million cars, SUVs and minivans were sold – the shift to cleaner, low-emission cars could have a huge impact on China's greenhouse gas output.

Chinese leaders have realized this and introduced new low-carbon targets in its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015), sending a clear message they want to cut China's dependence on oil. The government aims to raise the proportion of non-fossil and renewable energy in the energy mix to 15 percent by 2020.

Sensing the future potential of green cars and fueled by generous tax incentives, automakers are scrambling for leading positions in the hybrid and electric vehicle market. One auto industry expert has suggested that automakers trying to win the battle over the Chinese auto market should focus on not only building a solid brand image but also using advanced energy-saving or low-emission technologies.

"The solid brand image used to be based on a tailored model policy and bolstered with improvements and expansions in the sales and service networks," said He Jiankun, deputy director of China National Committee of Climate Change and director of Tsinghua University's Low-Carbon Energy Lab. "But their policies should also go with green environmental standards."

Toyota currently dominates the "green" car market, but competitors like Nissan and some US companies are moving in. Chinese carmakers, such as SAIC and Geely, unveiled their own green car models this year. Volkswagen, Honda and Volvo have also recently launched, or are planning to launch soon, clean-energy cars.

Future challenges

But the future to green vehicles is not without obstacles. He said insufficient technology and consumer attitudes still remain big problems.

"Car manufacturers are all facing technical problems, such as the life of batteries, large-scale deployment of charging facilities and so on," he said.

Indeed, some experts have said it could take years before technology and infrastructure for green cars will be available. At the 2010 Global Automotive Leaders Summit in April, Zhang Xiaoyu, honorary president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, estimated the Chinese market would take two decades to catch up in terms of technology, scale and volume.

High prices also deter many car buyers from purchasing green cars. Only 300 units of the most popular green vehicle, the Toyota Prius, were sold in China last year. Its 300,000 yuan (US$43,924) price tag is more than twice the cost of an ordinary family car.