A train carrying shipments bound for Malaysia set off from Huangshi, Hubei province on Tuesday, on the city's first rail-sea intermodal transport route for new energy vehicles.

Carrying auto parts from Great Wall Motor, the train arrived at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang province after two days. The cargo will be moved onto a ship on Saturday.

The route adopts a semi-knocked down model, where vehicles are partially disassembled into core components in China, shipped in bulk, and then assembled into complete cars at factories in the destination country. The model has reduced the transport volume per vehicle by approximately 60 percent and cut overall logistics costs by about 15 percent.

"Rail transport features large capacity and stable timeliness, while container transport is environmentally friendly," said Liu Yun, office director of Huangshi Railway Construction Investment for Great Wall Motor's Southeast Asian market. "This cooperation has shown us the efficiency of going overseas from the central region."

Tao Qiu from the Huangshi business department of the Wuhan Railway Logistics Center said: "The opening of the first rail-sea intermodal transport corridor for NEVs will strongly support Huangshi in building a NEV export hub in central China."

Going forward, the route will increase the frequency of train services to support exports of Great Wall Motor vehicles and more Hubei-made automobiles to member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including Thailand and Indonesia.