Visitors view the concept car EVE from Chinese electric automaker Nio at Haikou New Energy Vehicle Exhibition in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 10, 2019. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

China will provide preferential policies for rural residents, holding promotional events from July to December in a bid to boost new energy vehicle (NEV) sales in rural areas, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday.

During the period, five promotional events will be organized for rural residents in places including Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province, Haikou in South China's Hainan Province, Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, and Taiyuan in North China's Shanxi Province, the statement read.

The preferential policies cover more than 10 NEV models including Beijing Electric Vehicle's EC3, Anhui Jianghuai' s iEV6E, and Zhejiang Hozon's NezhaN01, according to the statement. It did not reveal further details of the policies, which will be set by local governments and NEV companies. 

"The policy will stimulate domestic consumer demand and optimize rural environments by expanding clean energy development," Ji Hua, deputy general manager of Aerospace Engineering Equipment (Suzhou), told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

He added that the policy encourages the NEV industry to pay more attention to rural markets, helping the industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn. 

The domestic NEV industry was hit hard by the epidemic. In February, its production and sales both slumped by more than 70 percent on a monthly basis, with production dropping to 10,000 units and sales to 13,000 units, per data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). However, the industry is showing signs of recovery as business is resuming. 

Vehicle ownership hit 360 million nationwide, of which NEVs topped 4.17 million, more than 360,000 units and up 9.5 percent from the end of 2019, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.