China is revising its current vehicle scrapping rules to lift restrictions on the service time of some vehicles.
The move is aimed at encouraging manufacturers to make more environmentally friendly and longer lasting products.
From Shanghai, our China Drive features correspondent Xiaoyu has the details.
China now has a total of over 30 million vehicles and according to current laws about 1.8 million cars should be scrapped every year.
As millions of new autos are sold every year, pollution and waste caused by the scrapping of old cars is also increasing.
Chen Lin, an official from the Ministry of Commerce says that standards for vehicle scrapping are being revised to reduce such wastage.
"The revision will lift restrictions on the service time of non-commercial vehicles. Whether to scrap a vehicle or not will depend on its safety condition and whether it reaches criteria for environmental protection. This is good news to car owners. But for auto makers, it means they need to develop better cars."
The continuing rapid expansion of vehicle ownership in China means the country will face worsening traffic conditions, higher oil consumption and more pollution.
The new rules will encourage the purchasing of more energy-efficient cars with lower emissions of dangerous pollutants; in addition they should be made of materials that can be more easily recycled. Various policies, including taxation, will be used to push consumers towards choosing such vehicles.
Due to the inefficiency of current scrapping systems and under-developed technology, only 40% of scrapped vehicles and spare parts are recycled in China while in more developed countries the figure is over 90%. Wasted oil, batteries and metals are all sources of severe pollution to the environment.
To avoid these problems Chen Lin says it's imperative that auto makers improve their after-sales service.
"The manufacturers only think about making the cars and sell them out. They should think of how to make their products save more energy and generate less pollutants. These should be the future trends."
The new rules are expected to come into force later this year.
For China drive this is Xiaoyu.
Xiaoyu, CRI news.
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