China on track to become world # 39; No. 1 electric car market
Sales of electric cars increased are good for a country with a big problem of pollution Until recently, only a few own cars were on the road sales are a bright spot for the Chinese economy.
We now turn to China and a very different kind of change is going on out there The electric vehicle sales are booming is good for a country with a big problem of pollution and, until recently, not many own cars on the road, but they've quickly become a bright spot for the Chinese economy, which glide Our colleague David Greene spoke with NPR's Shanghai correspondent, Frank Langfitt to know what is driving the trend.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE Why the sales of these types of cars just booming right now.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE Well, it's really interesting to see what the government's been done for this to happen first, just to get the numbers, 170,000 of these electric and hybrid cars to plug-in October - that s three times sales last year already, and Shanghai, there are waiting lists up to six months and put this in perspective do not want overhype this is less than 1 percent of the overall market here, but China is now easily ready to pass the US as the largest market for electric and hybrid devices and basically, the government wanted to make this change they are very concerned about the quality of the air they're concerned about the congestion on the roads and they also want to help Chinese electric car manufacturers.
GREENE And all this, it seems, arrived very, very quickly.
LANGFITT He is a big, big change I remember maybe there are three or four years, having a few beers with US auto execs and was looking for stories and I asked about electric vehicles because - you know, it would be a good story if they took off here and they all really said the market was mostly dead time and the big problem, of course, is there's no infrastructure to recharge these cars that the government had s however, these reductions offer really great and people are flocking to the car at the moment in a way they weren t before.
GREENE What are some of the prices I mean, we think of the types of car commercials that we see and hear in the U S.
LANGFITT No, much, much better in fact you remember that there was this crazy electronics store called Eddie's.
LANGFITT Back in the 70s and 80s and they had these wild commercials and they say, prices are crazy The Communist Party is now the Crazy Eddie of electric vehicles and I would have got one if I could, I haven not a Shanghai residence permit While I think most Chinese people can get But my assistant, Yang, just bought one.
GREENE And Yang is with you, right, I understand.
GREENE So what kind of car did you buy and how good case that you get.
ZHOU I bought a hybrid model of a Chinese automaker BYD called And it means building your dreams I paid 24,000 for the car and that's 30 percent off the sticker price I paid no tax the purchase and the best thing that comes with the car is a free license plate Shanghai, which is 13,000.
What GREENE Wait a license plate costs 13 000.
GREENE And I complain to go to the DMV here, I mean, why a license plate cost much.
ZHOU Because the license plate is extremely valuable here, it allows me to drive the high road during rush hour This is a way for the city government to control congestion by limiting the number of cars on the roads without the plate, I have to crawl along the surface streets in Shanghai.
GREENE avoid traffic is a big problem, I now understand why you - that means building your dreams, Yang But let me ask about the difficult thing, which is the load Frank mentioned that he is really hard load these vehicles, I mean, I visited Frank in Shanghai I know there are skyscrapers and skyscrapers where exactly do you charge this thing.
ZHOU I must admit that the load in the car is really annoying every time I do, I have to turn down an extension of my apartment, located on the 11th floor.
ZHOU Oh, yes, it is very long and it really laughing heavy, it takes seven hours to charge the car and the car can drive 40 miles on a charge but luckily I did not charge the car every day, but I do not expect that the infrastructure for such vehicles will get better over time because the Chinese government plans to build 12,000 charging stations by 2020.
GREENE Well, Yang, thank you to tell us about your car purchase.
Hey, Frank, let me ask you, I mean, it seems that the government, as you said, a lot of reasons to get people who buy these new energy vehicles I mean, go -they can offer deals like this for the foreseeable future.
LANGFITT Well, alluding to Shanghai he will continue to do, but obviously, this kind of gifts can not go on forever and hope is, as the United States, you know you try to boost demand by offering these offers and generate interest and then hopefully, over time, people will start buying them, even after the discounts disappear.
This is NPR GREENE Frank Langfitt and also his new assistant, Yang Zhou, Shanghai Thank you both.
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