China’s electric vehicle output could reach 1 million units next year and 3 million by 2020, BAIC Group Chairman Xu Heyi said, exceeding the government’s EV production goals.

China aims to produce 2 million EVs a year by 2020 and 7 million five years later, and accounting for 20 percent of total light-vehicle production by 2025.

In the first nine months, the country produced 424,000 EVs and plug-in hybrids, an increase of 40 percent year on year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

“The trend is definite,” Xu told reporters on the sidelines of the Communist Party Congress.

“Rather than the time when gasoline-fueled cars are withdrawn, it is more important to consider the extent to which electric vehicles are popularized, or their market share,” Xu said.

Last month, an industry ministry official said China was considering a timetable to ban the production and sale of light vehicles that use gasoline or diesel fuel.

Wang Chuanfu, chairman of leading EV producer BYD, said in September that all of China’s vehicles could be electrified as early as 2030.