While the US government doesn’t seem to be reconsidering their push behind Electric Vehicles (EVs), ($7500 rebates for buyers of an EV), the Chinese government apparently is considering abandoning their plan of a singular focus on EVs to one of a much broader consideration of ways to reduce transportation fuel use.
From AutoblogGreen:
Beijing – and in some ways, the whole of China – had set out to leapfrog conventional engine technology by developing and manufacturing huge amounts of electric vehicles. In particular, the city had hoped its push to develop plug-ins would give it an advantage over the West in electric vehicle technology. But hopes and dreams don’t always jive with reality.
AutoblogGreen adds this:
Forbes presents a compelling story on this notion that China and its sole focus on electric vehicles don’t mix. Here’s a particularly striking excerpt:
Take Warren Buffett. In September 2008, the “Oracle of Omaha” took a 10-percent stake in BYD, the Shenzhen-based battery and vehicle maker, for $200 million. The move landed him on the cover of Fortune in 2009, inside the company’s e6 model with the now-famous caption, “Warren Buffett hasn’t just seen the car of the future, he’s sitting in the driver’s seat.”
But was he really sitting in the vehicle of future? Forbes says BYD has sold a grand total of 53 (!) e6s since March of 2010, with nearly all of those going to local taxi companies, which leads us to this question: How can a vehicle that doesn’t sell represent the future?
Letting the market place decide seems to have a supporter, but it is odd that it is the Chinese marketplace not the American.
cbdakota
Climate Change Sanity 