Here’s how China aces the U.S and even Norway with their electric vehicle consumption – 2018

The established carmakers namely Tesla, Volkswagen and Porsche have multiple motives. They need zero driving emission vehicles to meet tougher greenhouse gas limits coming into effect in Europe in 2021. Diesel is in the doghouse and China, a major market, is pushing hard for more electric vehicles.

EVs sold in Chinese numbers

China accounts for half of the world’s production and sales of electric cars, according to the research by the non-profit International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The country accounted for 579,000 of the 1.1 million electric vehicles produced globally in 2017, surpassing Europe, Japan and the United states combined.

Government Policies that drive this demand

• The size of China’s vehicle market that is larger than the U.S. is primarily responsible for the surge. China’s government policies are the other contributors towards this consumption of EVs. ‘Policy is the underlying driver for electric vehicle growth around the world.’ The ICCT reported on the subject
• The Chinese government has been at the forefront, driving the switch to new energy vehicles and it also wants to lead and dominate the EV market. In fact, the government wants EVs to account for 12% of overall sales by 2020
• “They want to be leading the change, a bit like autonomous driving,” said Christian Meunier, Infiniti’s vice-president for global sales and marketing, in an interview at the Beijing Auto Show. EVs continue to fall into a niche category range in the U.S.
• The Chinese government understands the benefits of electric vehicles to ease environmental problems and the demand for oil. It has estimated that electric vehicle energy efficiency is 45% better than internal combustion engines

China’s growing economic might & Population

Oil imports in China are growing at an unsustainable rate and the demand for cars is only increasing as the Chinese economic might and population continue to grow. Electric vehicles could be part of the answer – the government is making legislative changes and incentives to favour electric vehicle production and use.

Incentives to own EVs

China is favouring long-range cars, because EV’s with an excess of 400km (249 miles) saw a subsidy increase of 13%. The government provided incentives to owners of EVs in China and recently increased the minimum range for incentives from 100km to 150km owing to the rate of response from the vehicle consumers.

Cost-effective production

• Since most electric cars sold in China are produced by domestic firms they have been able to keep their costs low and are able to price it competitively compared to petrol driven cars
• The most popular range of EVs sold in China are priced between 80,000 to 100,000 yuan, according Toliver Ma, an auto analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Hong Kong, making it appealing to the country’s cost-conscious buyers

Conclusion

China’s road to becoming the electric vehicle market leader is impressive and not unexpected given the overall rate of economic development the country is experiencing. More importantly, in the years to come, we will get to witness the impact that EV adoption is going to have on the air pollution in China’s heavily populated cities.