(Yicai) June 14 -- Chengdu, a southwestern city with the most car owners in China, plans to phase out 300,000 old autos and replace them with more than 300,000 new energy vehicles over the next three years.

Chengdu's car replacement initiative is part of its action plan to promote the renewal of large-scale equipment and the trade-in of old consumer goods, according to a document its government released yesterday.

Chengdu had 7.1 million motor vehicles by the end of last year, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier, with the number of privately registered autos jumping 8.1 percent to 5.43 million, its data showed. It surpassed Beijing as the Chinese city with the most car owners, according to data from the Ministry of Public Security.

Chengdu encourages the replacement of traditional fuel vehicles with NEVs and will give incentives of CNY8,000, CNY5,000, or CNY2,000 (USD1,100, USD690, or USD275) based on the scrapped model's size, said Lan Huajuan, deputy director of the Chengdu Municipal Commerce Bureau. It will also give CNY5,000 to citizens who buy NEVs before June 30, Lan added.

In addition, the new action plan specifies other targets that Chengdu needs to achieve by 2027, noted Chen Jian, deputy director of the Chengdu Development and Reform Commission. The scale of investment in equipment in the industrial, agricultural, construction, transportation, cultural and tourism, and medical sectors should jump at least 25 percent from last year, Chen pointed out.

The penetration rate of digital research and development and design tools in industrial enterprises above the designated size should exceed 94 percent, with a computer numerical control rate of over 75 percent in key processes, Chen added.

The number of recycled scrapped cars should double by 2027 from last year, the dismantling capacity of end-of-life autos should climb by 20 percent, the number of recycled used home appliances should rise by 35 percent, and the trade-in volume of second-hand vehicles should increase by 50 percent, according to Chen.

Editor: Martin Kadiev