How China made electric vehicles mainstream

“I drive an electric car because I am poor.”

Sun Jingguo stands nearby. “The cost of driving a very expensive gasoline is very expensive. I save the money that drives an electric car,” he says.

“It also protects the environment,” he adds, and it tends against its white U7 white model.

It is the type of conversation who dreams of the climate in hearing. In many countries, electric cars (EVS) are luxurious purchases.

But here in China – where nearly half of all cars that were sold last year were electrically – it’s a normal fact.

At the beginning of the century, China leadership has developed plans to control future technologies. Once the bicycle country in China is now a leader in the world in EVS.

For more than 18 million people in Guangzhou, the roar of the peak clock has become humiliating.

“When it comes to EVS, China is 10 years old and 10 times better than any other country,” says Michael Dan, an automotive analyst.

The Chinese BYD is now leading the global EV market, after exceeding its competitor in the United States earlier this year.

BYD sales have been helped by a vast local market more than 1.4 billion people, and they are now looking to sell more cars abroad. As well as a group of other Chinese startup companies that make EVS at reasonable prices for the comprehensive market.

So how did China build this forefront, and can be arrested?

In tracking the origins of EV’s dominance in China, analysts often return to Gang Wan – a German coach’s engineer who became Chinese Minister of Trade and Science in 2007.

Dan says. Bad news: On the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, all I see is foreign brands. “

At that time, Chinese brands were not able to simply compete with European, American and Japanese car makers for quality and prestige. These companies were the beginning that could not be connected when it came to producing gasoline or diesel diesel cars.

But China has abundant resources, skilled labor and an ecosystem for suppliers in the auto industry. So Mr. One decided to “change the game and turn the text by moving to electricity,” according to Mr. Den.

This was the main plan.

Although the Chinese government included EVS in its five -year economic scheme early 2001, until 2010 had not begun to provide huge amounts of support for the development of the industry.

China, unlike Western Democrats, have the ability to mobilize severe spaces of their economy over many years for their goals.

The country’s infrastructure projects and dominance in manufacturing in the country are a testament to this.

The American Research Center, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), estimates that from 2009 to the end of 2023, Beijing spent about 231 billion dollars (172 billion pounds) in developing the EV industry.

From consumers and car companies to electricity providers and battery suppliers, every person in China has the right to obtain money and assistance when it comes to EVS.

Encourage BYD, for example, to shift from smart phone batteries to focus on EVS production.

Catl based in Ningde – which supplies companies such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford – was established in 2011 and now produces a third of all batteries used in EVS all over the world.

This combination of long -term planning and government financing allowed China to control critical supply chains in the production of batteries.

This helped build the largest public charging network in the world with concentrated stations in large cities, which puts drivers just minutes away from the nearest charger.

“If you want to manufacture a battery to put it in an electric car today, all roads pass through China,” says Mr. Don says.

Some indicate this as “state capitalism.” Western countries call them unfair commercial practice.

Chinese executive officials insist on all companies, local or external, to reach the same resources.

As a result, they argue that China now has a prosperous EV starting sector, driven by fierce competition and a culture of innovation.

“The Chinese government does the same thing it sees in Europe and in the United States – providing policy support, consumer encouragement and infrastructure,” said Brian Go, president of EV Maker Xpeng, for the BBC.

“But I think China has done it constantly and in a really more competitive scene,” he added.

Xpeng is one of the “Chinese heroes”, as Mr. GU said, the industry is leading forward. Breathly a decade of age, however, has not made a profit, the startup is already in the 10 best producers in the world.

The company has attracted some of the leading young Chinese graduates to its headquarters in Guangzhou, where employees wearing cross -eggs and Internet trafficking wearing live on the air in the showroom.

A bright -colored slide that takes employees from top to ground floor at home in Silicon Valley may look more than the artificial heart of China.

Despite the comfortable atmosphere, Mr. GU says the pressure to supply consumers is better cars at lower “huge” prices.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was invited to test the Mona Max drive from Xpeng, which was just sold in China for about $ 20,000.

For this price, you get the ability to drive self -driving, activate sound, a lie family, film and music flow. We were told that young Chinese graduates see all these standard features to buy the first car.

“The new generation of EV makers … looks at cars as a different animal,” says David Lee, co -founder and CEO of Hesai, which makes the Lidar sensing technology used in many self -driving cars.

Certainly, young Chinese consumers are attracted to technology on top of the range, but there is a great deal of government spending tending to make Evs attractive, according to the CSIS study.

The public receives subsidies for trading in their non -electric car to obtain EV, as well as tax exemptions and rates supported at public shipping stations.

These privileges led Mr. Lu to go two years ago. He used to pay 200 yuan ($ 27.84; 20.72 pounds) to fill his car for a distance of 400 km (248 miles) of driving. It is now costing him a quarter.

People in China usually pay thousands against the vehicle registration board – sometimes more than the cost of the car itself – as part of government efforts to reduce congestion and pollution. Mr. if now gets one green.

“The rich gasoline cars that drive because they have unlimited resources,” says Lu. “EV only of the logical for me.”

Another owner of EV in Shanghai, who wanted to use her English name Daisy, says that instead of charging her car at a station, and she changes the battery of her car in one of the many automatic exchange stations in the city provided by EV NIO.

In less than three minutes, the machines replace their flat battery with a completely charged. It is the technique of the latest technology with less than the price of the fuel tank.

Government support at the heart of EV growth in China is not fair by countries looking to protect their car industries.

The United States, Canada and the European Union imposed large import taxes on Chinese EVS.

However, the UK says it is not planning to install it – which makes it an attractive market for companies like Xpeng, which started to provide its G6 to British consumers in March, and BYD, which launched the Dolphin Surf this month in the United Kingdom, and is available for less than 26,100 dollars.

This should be music for the ears of Western governments that enthusiastically re -move to EVS, which the United Nations call a “central” to avoid climate disaster.

Many Western countries, including the United Kingdom, say they will prohibit the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2030.

“The Chinese are thinking about a future in which they make almost every car for the world. They are looking around them saying:” Can anyone do it better than us? “

“The leaders in Detroit, Nagoya, Germany, the United Kingdom, everywhere around the world, are shaking their heads. It is a new era, and the Chinese feel very confident about their horizons at the present time.”

Despite the environmental benefits, there are still doubts about what can depend on Chinese technology.

The former president of Britain, Sir Richard Delelov, is recently called “computers on Chinese wheels” on controlled wheels “from Beijing”.

His claim that the Chinese EVS can freeze one day from British cities by BYD Stella Lee Vice President in an interview with the last BBC.

“Anyone can claim anything if he loses the game. But what about it?” She said.

“BYD pays very high standards of data safety. We use local transport companies for all our data. In fact, we do it 10 times better than our competitor.”

However, Sir Richard’s concerns are frequented by former national security discussions surrounding Chinese technology.

This includes the Huawei communication infrastructure maker, whose equipment has been banned in many Western countries, as well as the application of TIKTOK, which prohibits UK government agencies.

But for Sun Jingguo in Guangzhou, the message is simple.

“I think the world should thank China for bringing this technology to the world,” laughs. “I do.”

Participated in additional reports from Theo Ligit, an international business correspondent in London.