As an emerging industry, the new energy vehicle(NEV) manufacturing industry faces the real dilemmas of high price, low market demand, high risk, and low consumer awareness in the market promotion process. Promoting the development of emerging industries such as new energy vehicles through industrial policies is a common choice of governments around the world. NEV manufacturing industry policies can be divided into selective industrial policies and functional industrial policies. There are differences in the operational mechanisms between selective and functional industrial policies. Selective industrial policies mainly rely on investment approval, guidance catalogue, purchasing subsidy, tax reduction and other measures to make the NEV manufacturing industry achieve a certain cost advantage in the competition. Functional industrial policies mainly provide a driving force for the maturity of a commercialization conditions of the NEV manufacturing industry through the input and optimization of public resources such as infrastructure construction, supporting public service, and demonstration and promotion of education. At present, there is a controversy in both theoretical and practical circles about whether emerging industries such as NEVs should be promoted with selective industrial policies or functional industrial policies.
      The demonstration and promotion of the NEV manufacturing industry in China can be divided into three stages: pre-stage, mid-stage and post-stage. This study selected 16 NEV manufacturers and 88 demonstration cities in China as research samples. Focusing on the implementation effects of the selective and functional industrial policies of China′s new energy auto industry, a comparative analysis was carried out from the three dimensions of significance, agility, and stability of policy implementation effects.
       The study results show that:(1) Selective and functional industrial policies have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they need to be complemented and coordinated. The NEV manufacturing industry, as an emerging industry, has different needs for selective or functional policies at different stages of growth. At present, the cultivation and development of the NEV manufacturing industry not only requires promoting demand with selective industrial policies, but promoting supply with functional industrial policies.(2) The significance, agility, and stability of effects of selective industrial policies have gradually declined as NEVs move through demonstration stages. The policy effect of selective industrial policies is relatively significant in the pre-stage of the demonstration and promotion of new energy vehicles, but in the mid-stage and post-stage, the effectiveness of selective industrial policies has gradually declined. In the pre-stage and mid-stage of the demonstration and promotion, the lag period of the policy effect of selective industrial policies is relatively short, but it is unstable in the post-stage. In the pre-stage of the demonstration and promotion, the stability of the policies effect of selective industrial policies was poor. This effect then increased slightly in the mid-stage and declined in the post-stage.(3) The significance, agility, and stability of the policy effect of functional industrial policies have gradually increased through the states of the NEV demonstration and promotion period. The significance of the policy effect of functional industrial policies is relatively weak in the pre-stage, but increases in the mid-stage and post-stage. In the post-stage, this effect is relatively strong. In the pre-stage and mid-stage of the demonstration and promotion, the lag period of the policy effect of functional industrial policies is relatively longer, and it is slightly extended in the post-stage. The policy effect of the functional industrial policies was stable in the pre-stage, mid-stage, and post-stage of the demonstration and promotion and did not change significantly.
      This study has three implications for optimization and adjustment of China′s NEV manufacturing industry policies:(1) With the demonstration and promotion of the NEV manufacturing industry from the pre-stage to the mid- and post-stages, the policy structure of the NEV manufacturing industry needs to be adjusted. It necessary to change from a policy structure dominated by selective industrial policies to a policy structure with functional industrial policies as the main component, supplemented by some selective policies. Promoting the development of the NEV manufacturing industry should be accomplished through the synergy of functional and selective industrial policies.(2) The implementation of functional industrial policies should be based on the construction of public charging spot construction and the "double integral" policy. In order to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the traditional automobile industry to the NEV manufacturing industry, it is necessary to actively explore the innovative business model of constructing public charging spots and increasing the implementation of the "double credits" policy.(3) Selective industrial policy should establish a new policy structure focused on tax reduction and supplemented by the purchasing subsidy. Tax reduction will be the focus of policy implementation, reducing the cycle of tax refunds to increase the enthusiasm of manufacturers. At the same time, steadily pushing forward the implementation of subsidy reduction policy will gradually reduce the dependence on subsidy in the development of the NEV manufacturing industry.