On June 16, 2016, iCET held its "BestEV" 1sy implementation year summary in Energy Foundation China office. Over 20 representatives of the newly formed BestEV Experts Committee and BestEV Coalition, including industry, research and government organizations attended the meeting. iCET reviewed the project, its implementation process and major outputs for 2015/16, as well as its next steps towards 2017.

The BestEV is meant to accelerate a market-intrigued transition to a 100% none-fossil fuel powered and local zero-emissions vehicle fleet, primarily EVs. In order to achieve this goal, the BestEV is designed to support decision-making processes at three core levels - Consumers: Support EV purchase by providing an accountable aggregated and by-criteria evaluation of real-world EV usage experiences; Manufacturers: Support EV production improvement and strategic planning processes by providing aggregated actual by-criteria evaluation of various quantities and qualitative components of an EV; Regulator: Reflect real-world EV market evolvement process to policy-makers towards a balances and effective regulatory system.

Internalization of the above objectives will be sought through the following channels: Online reporting inputs and ranking outputs system, namely the BestEV WeChat and Website; Annual analysis of BestEV best and least performing models, as well as by-segment and by-manufacturer EV performance ranking; Annual high-level BestEV awards ceremony.

Over the past year, as the initiator of the BestEV, iCET led the scientific and transparent methodology development, have set up a committee of experts for steering the methodology’s development in future years, conducted an initial pilot based on the BestEV v1.0 version, and composed an initial marketing plan.

The presentations were followed by an in-depth discussion. Of this discussions’ highlights are: long-term lease of electric vehicles would be included on top of the owners and vehicle test drivers, expanding the audience BestEV evaluation system; as technology advances, the BestEVs criteria would be adjusted to educate consumers in regards to topics of technological development, such as intelligent systems, charging safety.

Furthermore, Shanghai Institute for Reform and Development Institute’s Deputy Director of the Energy and Transportation division, Ms. Clara Lau, emphasized the importance of the three dimensions of EVs ”Electricity, Mobility, Car” which are essential for comprehensively evaluate EV performance. Wang Bo, Charging Point PR Director suggested that charging safety insurance would be an included criterion for evaluating the car’s performance, and recommended chats availability for collecting more in-depth consumer inputs on issues of EV performance. Mr. Qi Luyun, Research Director of a VC highlighted the importance of forums for stressing major malfunctions of EV performance, as this is what a typical potential car buyer would look for for devising its car purchase decision.

Several participants expressed their interest in join the BestEV coalition for supporting the systems’ marketing efforts starting the coming implementation year. Members to date include the Beijing Transport Energy Conservation Center, CATARC, Wild Aid, Shanghai and Beijing EV Test-Drive (& auto museum) centers.

Finally, the Energy Foundation Clean Transportation Program Director Gong Huiming expressed his content with the BestEV’s 1st year of implementation and called for a continuous joint effort towards the marketization of the system and its impact on the commercialization of EVs. The BestEV is designed to become a stand-alone independent and transparent platform in future years.