Beijing: China says at least 30 per cent of newly purchased government cars will be electric and other types of “new energy vehicles” as it attempts to tackle air pollution and encourage the electric car market.

The official Xinhua News Agency was quoting a joint plan from government departments released Sunday that says about a third of newly bought cars for official use from 2014 to 2016 will rely on clean energy and the percentage will be raised year by year after that.

They include electric cars, plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell and solar-powered cars.

China is the world’s biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold.