Future of electric cars: Is China leading the way with game changing initiatives?

It seems that China will surpass the production of electric cars in 2019 if America doesn’t show much interest to be at the vanguard. China is giving its automakers a sort of ultimatum to reach its goal to lead the world to an electric car future.

To make it happen, all the major manufacturers operating in China (including the global General Motors and Toyota Motors to domestic players such as BAIC Motor and BYD) are ought to meet minimum requirements for producing new energy vehicles (aka NEVs).

According to the China Center for Energy and Transportation’s director, Yunshi Wang, the pressure is mounting in China and “this could also be a model for other countries.” Wang also believes that the initiative taken by China can also be a game changer worldwide.

“A complex government equation requires that a sizable portion of their production or imports must be green in 2019, with escalating goals thereafter,” Bloomberg noted.

Volkswagen AG sold around 40 percent of its vehicles in China in 2017. Now the company aims to introduce almost 40 locally produced NEV models within another 10 years in China. Volkswagen Group China will certainly meet the target of China government, the company ensured in its statement.

On the other hand, BMW AG is also planning to produce two pure-electric cars, which will include iX3 SUV starting in 2020. “Carmakers are both technically and commercially not ready for a ramp-up in EV production to the level of the quotas,” Sophie Shen, an automotive analyst at PwC in Shanghai opined.