Report: China Ponders Plan to Prune EV Industry

China reportedly is studying a plan that would drastically trim the ranks of the nearly 500 companies developing or making electric cars in the country.

Sources tell Bloomberg News the government may bestow special perks for top EV companies and make it more difficult for others to enter the business. Bloomberg notes that a large number of EV startups in China have not yet launched their first models.

The proposed rules would bar startups from tapping the manufacturing capacity of other carmakers unless the newcomers have invested at least 4 billion yuan ($579 million) in product development over the past three years and sold at least 15,000 EVs in the past two years, Bloomberg reports.

The news service says hundreds of companies have jumped into China’s nascent EV industry since the government declared electric cars a high priority. Those startups have raised an estimated $18 billion in eight years.

But Bloomberg says central planners now want to avoid rampant speculation among investors similar to the “dot-com” boom—and subsequent crash—20 years ago.