City Driving: Car Buyers Just Saying No to Electric Vehicles

Hey, Beijing drivers! Great offer: buy an electric car and get a license plate with no waiting! No? No takers?

Despite participants in Beijing's monthly license plate lottery having a less than one percent chance of getting one of the 20,000 new plates issued each month, only about 1,700 drivers have applied to buy electric vehicles.

Getting a license plate with no waiting is like icing on the cake – except there's no cake. There are few takers on electric cars because there is little if any electric charging infrastructure to be found in residential or office parking lots; as well, there is a very limited range of available car models offered to prospective consumers. Janet Lewis, an analyst with Macquarie Capital Securities, told the South China Morning Post, "The big fear is to get stuck in Beijing traffic and not have enough charge." Imagine that: your car runs out of juice on the Third Ring Road. With a gasoline-powered car, this would be a nightmare. With an electric car, there'd be nothing to do but wait for a tow.

Even if Beijing residents were to begin switching to electric vehicles en masse, it's important to remember that while car emissions would be reduced, electric vehicles are not a panacea for air pollution. In fact, given China's reliance on coal for power generation, it's possible that air pollution could become worse if automobiles switched to charging rather than filling up at the gas pump.

Photo: China.org.cn