BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) — China’s new energy vehicle (NEV) market is stepping into the growth stage from the demonstration stage and will become the largest NEV market in the world, according to a report released by the country’s automobile guild and a leading global marketing research firm on Tuesday.

The report, which was released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) and Nielsen, attributes the NEV sales surge in the first half of 2015 to China’s policy supports.

It said Chinese government released and implemented more than ten NEV-related supportive policies and standards in the first six months of this year and the number of NEV demonstrative cities increased to 89.

However, only 53.9 percent respondents participated in a survey know about the NEV subsidy policies, and only Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have higher proportion rates.

The report also said short run times, long charging times and too few maintenance stations are major barriers to China’s NEV industry development.

NEV sales in China in July surged 3.3-fold year on year to total 16,884 units, according to a CAAM press release on Tuesday. In the first half of 2015, NEV sales jumped 2.4-fold year on year. In a breakdown, the sales of pure electric cars and plug-in hybrid power cars hiked 2.9-fold and 1.9-fold year on year, respectively. Enditem