China Wants More Than 10 Million EV Parking Spots By 2020

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Here is some good news for all of those who are afraid that China’s ravenous appetite for cars will drive the cost of gasoline to obscene levels. The Chinese government is seriously attacking the infrastructure conundrum that plagues EVs: By 2020, China wants to have at least 10 million car parking spots for electric vehicles.

“The government is working on a plan — and I think it will be announced very, very soon — and is basically calling for having, in 10 years, electric car parks of 10 million units or above,” Wang Dazong, president of Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC), told Reuters. As BAIC is owned by Beijing, Wang should know what he is talking about. BAIC expects its own ratio of electric cars to be around 5 percent by 2020.

An unnamed industry executive told Reuters that China will focus on pure electric vehicles, and move away from gasoline-electric hybrids or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Chinese can get incentives of up to $18,000 if they buy an EV in certain cities, but, as BYD can attest, the take-up has been anemic.

Once EVs take off en masse in China, where will all the power come from? China’s abundant coal provides about 70 percent of the country’s electricity. And it doesn’t make the air cleaner by doing that. China has started a big drive into hydropower and, to a lesser extent, wind, gas and nuclear. At the end of the day, it will most likely be the latter that powers all those cars.

Now back to the fears of expensive gasoline: By 2020, Chinese car sales are expected to be 40 million a year, nearly 60 percent of today’s global car production. If 5 percent of those get powered from the grid, there still will be 38 million a year that consume gasoline. If there will be any left.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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