Guo Konghui of the Chinese Academy of Engineering recently criticized China’s Energy-Saving and New-Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012-20) for not including plans for developing low speed vehicles.  In this context low speed vehicles are vehicles with a top speed of 70 km/hr and powered by lead-acid batteries.  Guo argues that lithium based, fully functioning are vehicles are still not ready for “industrialization and marketization” while low speed vehicles are ready for market now.  Organizations at the provincial level are filling the void.  In August 2011 the Shandong New-Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Alliance issued its own regional low-speed vehicle standard and Guo estimates that 64,000 low speed vehicles were produced in the province in 2011.  Learn more:  Globaltimes.cn