"I heard that people can get a 57,000 yuan (US$9,315) subsidy maximum for purchasing new energy vehicles, so I'm here to see if they have the right car for me," resident Wang Xianrui said inside a car dealership. He has been looking for that one right car for two months now.

Many residents think along the same lines as Wang, according to the dealership's salesman. The number of clients who come in to get more information about electric vehicles has by increased 20 percent since Zibo was chosen as the new energy vehicle city.

Among the 12 cities that were chosen as the second batch of new energy automobile demonstration cities, four are located in Shandong. Zibo is just one of them, together with Linyi, Weifang and Liaocheng. Now, there are five cities which serve as new energy cars demonstration cities, including Qingdao – still from the first batch.

It proved the great development condition of Shandong in the field of new energy vehicles. By the end of 2013, it had 28 charging stations.

By the end of January 2014, the Qingdao and Linyi cities featured 450 and 151 new energy powered buses respectively. In Qingdao, this number has led to the reduction of 33907.05 tons of carbon dioxide, 225.08 tons of sulfur dioxide and 179.2 tons of nitrogen oxides by late January.

Wang also concerned that if the new energy vehicles are as convenient as gasoline-driven cars. "In the future, we will create a standard charging service network that covers the entire province in order to meet the car charging demands," Jia Chao, director of the sales department at State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company, said.