China Charges EV Market

I keep forgetting there issomeone else in the world that is more forward looking than the USAhappens to be.  Or more precisely, allthe forward energies of the USAare largely corralled into the Military Industrial Leviathan at the expense ofinternal development. 

The Chinese know that draggingout the oil game or becoming dependent on oil is profoundly unwise and thatthey can also lead the market.

Yes children, China is goingto produce million of cars for their billion customers and they will not befuel based at all.  The whole system willbe electric since the present protocol is not an option at all.  And yes, Chinais now big enough to do all this without any help from North America.

Expect to see our markets floodedwith cheap electrical cars made in China soon and I mean thatsoon. 

So while a few are still moaningabout how difficult it all will be, the tsunami of cheap EVs will drown out thewhole Global automobile industry inside a couple of years, commencing themoment that storage is truly practical and that may have already happened andwe are simply waiting for the first deliverables.

China charges up the on-ramp of the electrichighway

BY TODD WOODY

1 APR 2011 8:28 AM

http://www.grist.org/green-cars/2011-04-01-china-charges-up-on-the-on-ramp-of-the-electric-highway

Electric charging stations like this one in Shenzhen could become acommon sight in Chinaif the government sticks to its ambitious EV goals. Photo: RemkoTanisWhen it comes to the future of electric cars, as with other greentechnologies, the wild card is China.

The People's Republic has invested billions in renewable energy and hasbecome a solar superpower in photovoltaic manufacturing. It's also poised toone day potentially blow away the competition in wind turbine production. China'snew five-yearplan calls for dramatic increases in energy efficiency and designateselectric cars as a strategicindustry. (The government has set a goal of five million electric cars onthe roads by 2020.)

The country already is the world's largest automotive market -- GeneralMotors now sells more cars there than in the United States -- and its supportof electric car and battery makers has attracted investors like Warren Buffett,who has put his money into EV manufacturer BYD.

So far, domestic demand in China for electric cars is tiny, evencompared to the nascent U.S.market. According to a report from GTM Research -- yes, that report has been agold mine of data for posts this week -- there are but 295 electric cars on theroad in China. That's not a typo. Not that the U.S. is exactly racing down theelectric highway, as there are only 2,000 electrics in service here, the reportsays.

But other numbers in the report foreshadow China's potential to dominate theelectric car market.

The Chinese government's $17 billion investment in the electric carindustry so far outstrips the $5 billion the U.S. government has put into EVs. China has 120 domestic automakers compared to 13in the U.S.And most telling, some 33,200 people work in the Chinese lithium-ion batteryindustry, compared to 1,100 here. By 2020, GTM Research estimates that new carsales will reach 27.5 million annually in China compared to 17 million in theU.S.

"How aggressively China will mandate EVs is one of the moreinteresting considerations in looking at the global market potential, as thisnation now has the means to affect not only global production, but also theglobal demand for electric vehicles," wrote David J. Leeds, the report'sauthor. 

Todd Woody is a veteran environmental journalist based in California.