order to reduce the price for purchasers Despite ‘lackluster’ sales due to high production costs, China has announced it will retain and fine tune the subsidy system.21 In Japan the government provides subsidies ranging from JPY70K (USD740) to JPY900K (USD9,500) to purchasers of new eco-friendly vehicles satisfying certain fuel efficienc standards, provided that the vehicles are purchased in the period from 20 December 2011 to 31 January 2013 and used for more than a year by the same individual. Japan allocated a budge of JPY300 billion (USD3.2 billion) for these subsidies.