"In China, owning a car is no longer a status symbol; you buy an electric car because it's cheap."
The majority of the population has had direct access to an electric vehicle, which is heavily subsidized both in production and purchase.
BeijingIn Europe, electric cars are the future; in China, they are the present. The country is also proud to have become a powerhouse in the sector and celebrates its brands leading the best-seller rankings. BYD, Chery, Geely, and the up-and-coming Xiaomi have become industry leaders. Behind this success lies a national effort and a planned economy, as the government designed a plan in 2000 to develop the electric and hybrid car industry. Clearly, it has worked.
Beijing was aware of the country's lagging development. In the late 1980s, there were practically no cars on the streets of the Chinese capital, except for the official Red Flag brand, and only a few taxi services operated in some southern cities. Bicycles predominated, which, curiously, are now less common even though other places are trying to promote them.
Despite foreign investment, achieving technological competitiveness in the global market with a combustion engine car, as the South Koreans had done, seemed impossible. Furthermore, in China, the need to reduce CO2 emissions also played a role.2because the country could not afford to have a middle class of 300 million people opt for gasoline cars as a result of economic growth.
Since 2009, the electric vehicle sector has been receiving direct subsidies for design and production. Government-subsidized factory projects have sprung up across the country. In the last decade, some 500 electric vehicle companies have been established, although only about 200 have received official certification from the authorities to begin production. In other words, many factories haven't even opened their doors. Currently, there are almost 100 electric car brands on Chinese roads. Experts maintain that only about ten of these will survive because overproduction and price wars will wipe out most of them. In fact, vehicle prices have fallen by an average of 20% in the last two years. This titanic effort is only possible thanks to the substantial government support that other countries clearly cannot afford. Beijing has also subsidized the purchase of electric cars and is actively protecting the market. This year, a law was passed requiring that all cars purchased by governments or state-owned enterprises be manufactured in China. This is not an arbitrary measure: in China, taxi fleets, tendered by municipalities, and those of public companies and agencies represent a large part of the market.
City Cars
In the People's Republic of China, private cars are primarily urban vehicles, used for trips within large, sprawling cities. Long-distance travel is rare because the country is so vast, and trains and airplanes are the preferred modes of transport for such journeys. This concept of a primarily urban vehicle, coupled with the development of an extensive network of battery charging stations, has facilitated the adoption of electric cars. Most of the population has never driven a gasoline-powered car and, therefore, is unfamiliar with the noise of Western city traffic and the smell of exhaust fumes. Thus, Chinese cars stand out for their interior design and the features they offer users. These services are geared more towards leisure than driving, and this may well be the future of the car in China: an increasingly automated vehicle moving towards the autonomous, driverless model.
In fact, some neighborhoods in Beijing already have experimental driverless taxi services. Jian Lufeng rejects this model. Although he is 63 and has already retired and given his Mazda to his daughter because she no longer needs it to get to work, he believes that at a time when unemployment is rising, considering reducing drivers or company staff because AI is being used makes no sense.
On the other hand, the young Xiao believes that before, a car "was a way to show that life was going well for you," but for young people now, it's only valued if it's truly needed. "Before, having a car was a status symbol, but now you buy a Chinese electric car because it's cheap," she explains. BYD has a model for around €7,200, and it can also be purchased in installments.