China Sparks Electric Cars Revolution.

China - the world's largest electric cars market

China is the world's largest car market and wants to see millions of electric cars on the road by the end of the decade.

China wants to become the world leader in 'so-called' clean-energy cars, planning to invest more than $14 billion in new technology by 2020.

Electric scooters today, electric cars tomorrow.

"Two-hundred million ride electric motor scooters (in China) now. They know the limitations of batteries and about recharging so they don't run out of power," the president of General Motors China, Kevin Wale has said.

"As soon as someone provides them with the right vehicle at the right price, they'll start to move towards them. The government's going to support that transition as well," he added.

 What are the reasons?

So why are the Chinese government so keen to put money into developing electric-cars?

The main reason some experts say is China's fear of being dependent on foreign oil.

Some of them stress the point that the effort to go electric is mainly down to energy worries and only a little about environmental concerns. They point out that most of the electricity will be generated in (polluting) coal fired power stations.

 No surprises that most of the big car companies are at the Shanghai Motor Show displaying hybrid and electric cars.

 These include General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen, and the major Chinese firms.

 They want to attract Chinese buyers in a massive market where 18 million vehicles were sold last year!

Battery Problem 

Because the market is so big it can be used as a kind of testing ground for new innovations.

First they'll try one option and then another to move towards a solution particularly with batteries.

Hybrid and electric cars will not dominate the market over night. Ford reckon that between 10 and 25 percent of global car sales will be hybrid or electric by the year 2010. And the reasons for this slow growth in market share are mainly due to batteries.

 "The batteries need to get smaller. They need to be capable of holding more storage and they need to be able to extend the range. But importantly, they also need to get less costly," according to Ford executive, Joe Hinrichs.

Battery development is the important thing. And this time the Chinese want to keep up with competitors in the West and get in at the beginning; they fell behind in the development of petrol and diesel and they don't want a repeat of that with alternative eco-friendly vehicles.

The Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation

(SAIC) This is one of the firms involved in the re-emergence of MG. SAIC are planning to start production of a small electric car the Roewe E1 later on this year. Their president is keen for them to keep in front of new technologies. He says

"We cannot wait until these technologies are fully mature, otherwise we will always be late,"

Who knows before long, many of us who are city dwellers, may well be driving small electric cars and today's cars will seem like dinosaurs from a bygone age.