China's industry ministry is developing a timetable to end production and sale of traditional fuel cars and will promote development of electric technology, state media on Sunday cited a Cabinet official as saying.

The reports gave no possible target date, but Beijing is stepping up pressure on automakers to accelerate development of electrics.

China is the biggest auto market by number of vehicles sold, giving any policy changes outsize importance for the global industry.

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A deputy industry minister, Xin Guobin, said at an auto industry forum on Saturday his ministry has begun "research on formulating a timetable to stop production and sales of traditional energy vehicles," according to the Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily.

France and Britain announced in July they will stop sales of gasoline and diesel automobiles by 2040 as part of efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.

Communist leaders also want to curb China's growing appetite for imported oil and see electric cars as a promising industry in which their country can take an early lead.

China passed the United States last year as the biggest electric car market. Sales of electrics and gasoline-electric hybrids rose 50 percent over 2015 to 336,000 vehicles, or 40 percent of global demand. U.S. sales totaled 159,620.

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The reports of Xin's comments in the eastern city of Tianjin gave no other details about electric car policy but cited him as saying Beijing plans to "elevate new energy vehicles to a new strategic level."

Beijing has supported electric development with billions of dollars in research subsidies and incentives to buyers, but is switching to a quota system that will shift the financial burden to automakers.

Under the proposed quotas, electric and hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles would have to make up 8 percent of each automaker's output next year, 10 percent in 2019 and 12 percent in 2020. Automakers that fail to meet their target could buy credits from competitors that have a surplus.

Beijing has ordered state-owned Chinese power companies to speed up installation of charging stations to increase the appeal of electrics.

Chinese automaker BYD Auto, a unit of battery maker BYD Ltd., is the world's biggest electric vehicle maker by number of units sold. It sells gasoline-electric hybrid sedans and SUVs in China and markets all-electric taxis and buses in the United States, Europe and Latin America as well as in China.

Volvo Cars, owned by China's Geely Holding Group, announced plans this year to make electric cars in China for global sale starting in 2019.

General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co. and others have announced they are launching or looking at joint ventures with Chinese partners to develop and manufacture electric vehicles in China.

BONUS FEATURE

China's move bound to have global repercussions
Below, an Australian report on the new policies.

China's indication to ban sale of non-electric cars a 'tipping point' for global industry

Mechanics work on assembly line of Chinese car manufacturer Great Wall Motor Co. China's ban is expected to be implemented much sooner than in Europe or the US.

The world's largest car market, China, has indicated it will follow countries like France and Britain in moving to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel engines.

The Chinese Government has not said when the full ban on petrol and diesel car sales would take effect, but other countries like the UK and France aim to do it by about 2040.

The decision could see China, which makes and buys more cars than any other country, send shockwaves across the global auto manufacturing sector.

"The message would be out there, and all the other the manufacturers in the world that want to sell in China desperately will realise that the writing is on the wall," industry analyst Gary Glazebrook said.

"[Petrol engine manufacturers] will essentially be crowded out or legislated out of the market unless they switch to electric cars."

Professor Glazebook thinks China can implement the ban much sooner than European markets.

"The thing that has been holding it back up until now is the cost of electric cars and the fact that they didn't have enough range," he said.

"Well, the cars that are now on the market do have enough range and battery technology has been improving and getting cheaper, so we've reached that tipping point I think.

"To completely ban the sale of other than electric cars, I can see that they could do that with in perhaps 15 to 20 years."

It is a decision that has global implications for suppliers to the Chinese market, like Australia, where Toyota and Holden are due to close their last plants by the end of October.

But Australia's vehicle manufacturing and car parts industries will still be worth tens of billions of dollars to the economy, thanks in part to the Chinese market.

China ban could boost Australian manufacturing

According to the body representing Australian car parts manufacturers, the ban is good news for Australia and could even see a revival of local car manufacturing.

Even so, Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers executive director Geoff Gwilym acknowledged there were fewer parts to sell to make an electric car.

"Currently those manufacturing operations make up more than 2.6 per cent of GDP in Australia, and it will still be around 2 per cent of GDP even when Toyota and Holden have finished their car-manufacturing operations," Mr Gwilym said.

"I think we could enter an age where we manufacture cars again, because it becomes a simplified process to some degree.

"Generally speaking, electric engines have got about 17 moving parts as opposed to hundreds of moving parts in either diesel or petrol engines."

As the world is making more cars and as electric cars become easier to make, Mr Gwilym sees opportunity for Australia.

"You are [competing with lower-wage markets like China], but automation will change a lot of that," he said.

"You don't have a casting plant, you don't have a machining plant, you don't have a plant that has to make engines.

"And if you attach to that different types of manufacturing technologies and robotics, then my view is that we will be able to make cars again."