The Fuzhou government announced on Wednesday that it will purchase another 1,068 new energy buses as part of its efforts to clean up pollution and optimize the city's energy mix.

The move came after the release of a local government plan a month ago.

In the plan, local authorities are urged to further expand the presence of new energy buses, electric or electric-hybrids, and  replace all fossil fuel buses in the city with new energy ones by 2020.

From Jan to Nov, the city had already launched 448 new energy buses, 75 percent of all newly added buses in the year.

The smooth implementation of the plan so far is largely attributed to the tremendous financial support from the government, according to an official from the city's Road Management Office.

He revealed that bus operators in Fuzhou are able to apply for a certain amount of subsidies with a premium of 35,000 yuan ($5,297.2) from the government if they scrap a fossil fuel bus a year or more before the due time.

Also they are able to apply for additional financial support when purchasing the new ones.

A conventional bus is normally priced at 400,000 to 500,000 yuan while a new energy one costs much more at an average price of more than one million yuan.

In 2016, the subsidies from the central government and local government perfectly bridged the price gap and greatly motivated local bus operators to join in the bus replacement campaign, a local bus company manager revealed.

Fuzhou's plan dovetails with the country's broader effort to curb carbon emissions by reducing the use of fossil fuel vehicles.

Speaking at an auto forum in Sept, Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology said that regulators are working to come up with a timeline for phasing out the sale and production of the vehicles.

New energy buses are parked neatly at a bus station in Fuzhou, capital city of Southeast China's Fujian province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]