Electric in China

The Atlantic has a short piece on electric vehicles (EVs) in China. Similar articles have been written about other “green” Chinese ventures:

Having missed the industrial revolution, and then assumed the role of a benchwarmer during the information revolution, China must now seize on the energy revolution. Beijing wants game-changers, and it has pinned hopes on EVs as one of them.

Consumer demand for autos continues to be robust in China, even after certain subsidies were peeled back. And having a personal car symbolizes something more than just the abstract notion of entering the middle-class. To the average Chinese, a car is a definitive emblem of private ownership in a country where the state still owns the land on which one’s home sits (in one recent newspaper poll, 60% of respondents said they planned to buy a car in the next five years).