China

  • BYD e5. Photo by CarNewsChina.com.

    It's long been official policy for China that the country's automakers will become the world's highest-volume producer of electric cars. (It also intends to dominate lithium-ion battery cells and photovoltaic solar panels, for the record.) But the government policies and incentives to achieve that goal have often changed over the years. DON'T MISS: How California and China will push for millions of zero-emission vehicles Now it appears that a proposed formula to reward the country's makers of plug-in vehicles has been tweaked, to give more rewards to electric cars with longer battery ranges...

  • Aston Martin Rapid-E concept
    Aston Martin RapidE electric luxury sedan delayed to 2019 as Williams replaces Le Eco

    Among electric-car owners and advocates, tiny British sports-car maker Aston Martin has become a company to watch. That's largely due to its CEO for the last few years, Andy Palmer, who had previously led product development at Nissan while it launched the Leaf electric car. Palmer had ambitious...

  • Tour of Tesla battery gigafactory for invited owners, Reno, Nevada, July 2016
    Tesla finds Chinese production site for electric cars: Shanghai

    Tesla is closing in on a deal to begin production of its cars in China, after it signed a preliminary agreement to explore building cars near the major city of Shanghai. By signing the preliminary agreement, Tesla will begin the first step towards local production in China, a move that would...

  • California state capitol, Sacramento
    How California and China plan to push for millions of zero-emission vehicles

    California has long been the nation's leader in zero-emission vehicles, with initiatives dating more than two decades. Now the Golden State is partnering with China, the world's largest car market, to accelerate that country's zero-emission goals. The state announced a new initiative with China, in...

  • Volkswagen ID Buzz concept, 2017 Detroit auto show
    VW too will launch electric-car joint venture in China with partner

    Volkswagen is following the lead of many other global automakers: it has signed a deal for a new electric-vehicle joint venture in China. The German automaker said this week it has partnered with Chinese automaker Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co. (JAC) to produce electric vehicles, as well as to...

  • Mercedes-Benz EQ electric car concept  [photo: Axel Harries]
    Mercedes to make electric cars at its China factory with BAIC

    It's not only electric cars: China is also now the world's largest market for luxury cars. Audi got an early foothold among party officials and high-ranking government officials, but the allure of global brands has ensured that Mercedes-Benz and BMW sell lots of cars there as well. Now, Mercedes...

  • NEVS 9-3 concept, 2017 CES Asia

    Swedish auto brand Saab may never return, but the company NEVS has now officially debuted its production electric cars—which are adapted from Saab assets it acquired following the brand's fall from grace. NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden) is, in fact, a Swedish company, though it's backed by Chinese investors. Its 9-3 series, made up of a four-door sedan and a 9-3X wagon, debuted earlier this week at the 2017 CES Asia trade show. DON'T MISS: Saab Owner NEVS To Launch Five Electric Cars By 2018, For Chinese Market Yes, it's based on the long-gone Saab 9-3 and 9-3X models that date...

  • Buick Velite 5, for sale in China, at 2017 Shanghai auto show   [photo: Ronan Glon]
    China will have lots of electric cars, but no maker knows what market wants

    China is not only the world's largest single car market, but the market in which the greatest number of plug-in electric cars are sold. But the country's government has plans to increase the number of electric cars on its roads dramatically, to curtail noxious exhaust emissions and move China to...

  • A123 Systems manufacturing facility, Livonia, Michigan
    Battery maker A123 quietly became a half-billion-dollar company

    Ten years ago, lithium-ion cell maker A123 Systems was a hot startup and a much-publicized company. This author, in fact, profiled the company for IEEE Spectrum in the technology magazine's September 2007 issue. The six years that followed proved enormously painful for the Massachusetts company...

  • BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, China
    China has licensed 9 electric-car plants, more than U.S. has today

    Quick trivia question: how many plants are there in the United States currently building electric cars? To be generous, we'll allow both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models. Any idea? The answer turns out to be four. DON'T MISS: Shanghai auto show: China plugs into electric cars in a big way...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    Is China more important to the future of electric cars than the U.S.? Poll results

    Many U.S. car buyers still aren't aware that the Chinese market surpassed North America in volume and importance fully a decade ago. Similarly, in advanced automotive technology, a case can be made that China is more important than the U.S. Nowhere is that more evident than in plug-in electric...

  • MG E-Motion concept, 2017 Shanghai auto show
    Shanghai auto show roundup: China plugs into electric cars in a big way

    China has long aimed to be the global leader in battery cells, solar power, and electric vehicles. But with more carrots and stronger sticks, electric-car sales started to rise in the country a couple of years ago. With close to a fifth of the world’s population starting to consider cars...

  • Volvo 40.1 concept

    Finally joining the bandwagon, Swedish manufacturer Volvo has confirmed that it will introduce its first all-electric vehicle to the market in 2019. The announcement was made last week at the 2017 Shanghai auto show. That proved to be an appropriate stage, as the Chinese-owned maker plans on having the model produced in China. DON’T MISS: Volvo's next plug-in hybrids: 3-cylinder engine, smaller cars The decision will allow the company to take full advantage of the country’s technological advancement and growth, but will also allow it to tap into the world's largest market for...

  • BYD e6 electric taxi in service in Shenzhen, China
    How likely is it China will outpace the U.S. in electric-car adoption? Poll results

    China is the biggest new-car market in the world, and has been since 2010. The world's largest country also has some of the smoggiest cities on the planet, and that's a source of increasing public agitation. So at national, state, and local levels, a variety of Chinese government entities are using...

  • Buick Velite 5, for sale in China, at 2017 Shanghai auto show   [photo: Ronan Glon]
    China's Buick Velite 5 is a Volt with a nose job

    China is hugely important to General Motors, as it is to virtually any global automaker. It's the largest market in the country and, recently, it has put in place an increasing set of requirements that more vehicles sold there be fully or partially electric. It also happens to be by far the largest...

  • 2017 Honda Clarity Electric debuts at 2017 New York auto show
    Honda to launch electric car in China next year too, joining Toyota, reluctantly

    While corporate average fuel-economy standards through 2021 remain in place in the U.S., automakers are preparing their case to argue for delays in further tightening. Meanwhile, China is turning the policy screws on automakers operating in the country, telling them they must sell more electric...

  • 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV, Newport Beach, California, July 2012
    Why Toyota's 'agonizing' U-turn toward electric cars? Because China says so

    Large auto companies are likely aircraft carriers: it takes a long time for them to change direction, and far longer yet to get them aligned on a new course. To various degrees, the world's carmakers have started to produce and sell vehicles that plug-in, whether for some or all of their travels...

  • Chevrolet FNR-X Concept for plug-in hybrid crossover, 2017 Shanghai auto show   [photo: Ronan Glon]
    Chevrolet FNR-X plug-in hybrid crossover concept debuts in Shanghai: live photos

    After being teased last week, the Chevrolet FNR-X Concept crossover made its debut yesterday at the Shanghai auto show. The new shape, which sports a plug-in hybrid powertrain, is intended to showcase the design talents of Chevy's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai It's the second...

  • 2012 Ford Focus Electric launch, New York City, January 2011 - Nancy Gioia

    Ford has aggressive electrification plans for China. In a recent announcement, the U.S. automaker said that 70 percent of the vehicles it sells in the country by 2025 will be hybrids—either plug-in or conventional—or fully electric. Ford builds vehicles in China through a joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Company, and the two will launch their first locally built plug-in hybrid next year with the 2018 Mondeo Energi sedan. DON’T MISS: Is Chevy FNR-X concept the plug-in hybrid CrossVolt SUV? That car, known as the Fusion Energi in North America, will feature an...

  • Teaser photo of Chevrolet FNR-X plug-in crossover utility concept for 2017 Shanghai auto show
    Is Chevy FNR-X concept the plug-in hybrid CrossVolt SUV?

    It's a single teaser shot, obviously of a Chevy front end, with unmistakable design nods to the Camaro muscle car. But the image of the Chevrolet FNR-X concept, to be unveiled at the Shanghai auto show less than two weeks hence, may be the first clue to some new GM plug-in hybrid offerings in the...

  • First Tesla Model S delivered in Hong Kong
    Hong Kong closed a tax loophole; is Tesla ancillary damage?

    Government officials in Hong Kong have eliminated a popular tax exemption that made electric vehicles much cheaper to buy than comparable gasoline-powered models. Now Tesla worries it could take the brunt of the blowback. The loophole helped make Hong Kong one of the biggest overseas markets for...

  • Buick Velite 5 to be sold in China (Chevrolet Volt in North America)
    GM confirms Chevy Volt to be sold as Buick Velite 5 in China

    In the 20 years since General Motors and its Chinese partner SAIC reintroduced the Buick brand to China, more than 8 million Buicks have been sold in what is now the world's largest car market. That's because the last Chinese emperor drove a Buick in the 1930s, and the brand retained a huge cachet...

  • Volkswagen ID Buzz concept, 2017 Detroit auto show
    First high-volume VW electric car must arrive by 2020, CEO says, mostly for China

    As it tries to put the ongoing diesel-emissions scandal behind it, VW Group is focusing its future on electric cars. The Volkswagen brand within the sprawling German company has developed an electric-car specific platform called MEB, and has shown multiple concepts based on it. Those include the ID...

  • Pininfarina H600 concept, 2017 Geneva auto show
    Hybrid Kinetic electric luxury car, with turbine range extender, to be built in China

    Several Chinese or Chinese-backed automotive startups are currently trying to replicate the success of Tesla by designing and selling their own luxury electric cars. But Hybrid Kinetic likely predates most of them. Started by the founder of Chinese automaker Brilliance, the company made headlines...

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