tirsdag 31. mars 2020

The uncertain future for China's electric car makers

Han Zhu is on a mission to go green. The 29-year-old data analyst wants her next car to be electric. But her reasons for buying an electric vehicle are in part practical. In the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, government restrictions on the number of petrol cars sold each year mean she would have to enter a lottery or auction to be able to buy a petrol vehicle. "There is a possibility you may never get it. With the electric vehicle green licence, you don't have to wait in line," she says.

Shenzhen has become the showpiece capital for the Chinese electric dream. In 2017 it became the first city in the world to introduce a fleet of electric buses. A year later, the government rolled out a plan to replace city taxis with electric cars. "In Shenzhen, in almost every residential building there are two charging units. One out of 10 cars on the street are Teslas," she says. "In China if the policy leads in one direction, technology and money goes in that direction too," she says.