Xu Weihan, chief financial officer of EVBuy, the designated sales, spare parts and service store for the E50 model, said the cars can also be recharged from home with an adapter that fits a standard 220V electric plug.

SAIC said 230 of the battery-powered vehicles were sold in the first week of the dual-subsidy plan taking effect, but no information on the number plate demand has been released.

Xu added that around 300 orders made last year are still waiting to be processed.

While the current national subsidy policy expired on Dec 31, 2012, Xu said he expected renewed policies to be unveiled "hopefully in February or March".

Raymond Tsang, a Shanghai-based partner at consultancy Bain & Co, said selling more than 200 electric cars in one city in one week was "impressive", but added: "If you put it into a national context, it's not as robust as it sounds".

Tsang added that the last few days of 2012, before the existing central government and municipal government subsidies lapsed, had proved a "golden week" for purchases.

Car buyers have now been given added impetus from the exemption of license fees, Tsang said, but since EV plates can neither be resold, nor reused on other internal combustion engine vehicles, they may not actually be worth the perceived value of 70,000 yuan. Tsang also said that the rebate policy really favors group purchases.

"As far as I know, if you buy more than 10 electric cars, you get an additional 2,000 yuan refund on each car. So you get more discounts if you bulk-buy."

Despite the generous financial benefits, Tsang said car customers are still wary of the lack of recharging stations, and of the distances involved in finding them, and had safety concerns regarding the batteries.

"Even if the battery technology is commercially viable, recharging is still a challenge," he added.

He said the government has allocated 5 billion yuan for the national green vehicle program, but that so far it had spent perhaps a few percent of that budget, meaning the potential still remains huge.

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