A Chinese auto maker launched a new mini-van e-vehicles to assist logistics across the mountainous areas of rural China. The first van rolled off the production line at Changfan New Energy Automobile, based in southwest China's Chongqing city, on Monday.
The company said the chassis and battery of the vehicle, which has a maximum range of 230 kilometers, are optimized to make it perform better on steep gradients.
The van costs 100,000 yuan (15,275 U.S. dollars), but buyers only need to front about 40,000 yuan as the remainder will be covered by a government subsidy, according to marketing vice president Liu Fengyu, who was quoted by Chongqing Evening News.
The annual charging costs will be in the region of hundreds of yuan, said the report. The vehicle will be used to achieve the "last mile" in online purchase delivery in mountainous areas, which is the last and usually most costly section of a package's journey from a retailer's warehouse to a buyer's doorstep.
E-commerce has seen explosive growth in China's countryside, where online sales hit 353 billion yuan in 2015, up 96 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
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