Manufacturers are racing to enter the largely non-existent market of electric cars in China. After Nissan, Daimler, GM, and possibly Ford, Volkswagen has been caught doing it with SAIC. Reuters found that an electric car called Tantus, “which will be produced by Shanghai Volkswagen, is already on a list of approved new vehicles, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.”
This is not Volkswagen’s first Chinese EV-to-be. And it’s not surprising.
In May, we reported about a “Kai Li” brand that had been registered by Volkswagen’s other Chinese joint venture FAW-VW with the listed purpose of “electric cars.”
When we reported that, we also said that an electric car developed together with SAIC may not be far. So here it is. SAIC now closely cooperates with GM on developing electric car technology, and at the same time with the Germans. May the best technology win.
China is still enthusiastic about the electric car idea and earmarked “$1.5 billion a year for the next 10 years to transform the country into one of the leading producers of clean vehicles,” says Reuters. This market can get nowhere but up. Reuters counted 10 registered electric cars in Shanghai, a city of 23 million. Compared to that, the 8.7 million city of Hangzhou is in a downright EV frenzy. Reuters found 25 electric cars in the city southwest of Shanghai.
how middle kingdom will handle the extra electricity loads?
isn’t certain cities were experiencing brown outs?
reminds me of late great rodney dangerfield talked about ” when I plugged in the elec shaver , the town’s trolley bus stopped running!”