ChinaHainan, a subtropical island province in southern China with about 10 million people, has reaffirmed that it intends to stop the sale of new petrol-powered vehicles by 2030. The commitment appears in the province’s newly released 15th Five-Year Plan for the Hainan National Ecological Civilisation Pilot Zone. It is not a new policy: Hainan’s then party chief first floated the idea in June 2020, and the province formalized 2030 as the target date in 2022. No other Chinese province has set an equally firm deadline.
What the plan actually requires
The rule targets new and replacement vehicles, not the cars already on Hainan’s roads. From 2030, all new and replacement vehicles bought by private owners must be new-energy vehicles (NEVs) - battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, or fuel-cell. Public-service and commercial fleets, including government cars, sanitation vehicles and passenger transport, face a 100% clean-energy requirement by the same date, with an exemption for specialized utility vehicles.
Hainan’s NEVs made up 23.75% of its vehicle fleet in 2025. The province is targeting more than 45% by 2030. That is well above China’s national fleet target of 30% NEV share by 2030, a goal the central government set on July 9, 2026.
To support the shift, Hainan plans to keep its province-wide ratio of vehicles to charging points below 2.5 to 1 by 2030, alongside pilot programs for hydrogen fuel-cell trucks in cold-chain logistics and public transport.
Why an island
Hainan is China’s largest free-trade zone, and a standalone customs regime creating a tariff-free import area took effect there in December 2025. That status gives carmakers a commercial reason to keep selling into the province on its terms, and gives Hainan a relatively closed market in which to test a policy more aggressive than anything else in China. Whether that makes Hainan a template other provinces eventually copy, or a one-off shaped by its own trade status, will not be clear until 2030 itself.
