China will end foreign ownership caps on local auto companies by 2022 and will remove restrictions on new-energy vehicle ventures this year, a major shift that will open the market wider to carmakers such as Nissan and Tesla. The country will remove limits on companies making fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2018, commercial-vehicle firms in 2020 and the wider passenger vehicle market by 2022, China's state planner said in a statement.
The move, which comes amid a trade standoff between Washington and Beijing, signals the end of a rule put in place in 1994 in the world's largest auto market limiting foreign carmakers to owning a 50 percent share of any local venture.
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