China will extend a tax rebate on purchases of so-called new-energy vehicles (NEV) until the end of 2020, said in a statement on Wednesday the finance ministry. The tax rebate was set to expire at the end of this year, but the government decides to extend the tax refund to incentive automakers to produce more electric vehicles.

“The extension would help increase support for innovation and development in new energy vehicles”, said the Ministry of Finance Xiao Jie. Beijing’s automakers are investing a lot in plug-in electric vehicle and the trend seems unstoppable: in 2017, the PEV market share of all new car sales crossed 3% for the first time, while the 2017 PEV market share is above 2%, firmly ahead of last year’s average (1.5%), CleanTechnica reported.

China has become the world’s largest automotive market, but local firms still can’t compete worldwide with big brands as General Motors, BMW, Mercedes or Audi, and Beijing’s government wants to catch up global automaker rivals.