Double Dips on the 'New Energy' Vehicle Ride

(Beijing) – A government campaign designed to modernize China's auto industry and clear smoggy air by encouraging sales of "new energy" autos, trucks and buses may have backfired.

Central government investigators have been fanning out across the country to determine whether auto companies and local governments abused the subsidy programs, which since 2009 have doled out hundreds of billions of yuan in subsidies to companies that build electric cars and other alternative-energy vehicles.