According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), between 220,000 and 250,000 electric vehicles will be sold in China this year and about 600,000 will be sold throughout the world, including 180,000 in the United States. Thus, CAAM expects China to become the world's largest market for electric vehicles, overtaking the United States, Kommersant writes.
CAAM’s Deputy Secretary General Shi Jianhua said that China has indeed achieved a good pace of production and sale of electric vehicles, but "quality rather than quantity should be the priority for sustainable development of the industry." According to him, the authorities should pay special attention to the safety of such vehicles and the reliability of batteries.
Thanks to government support in the form of tax breaks and subsidies, production of electric cars in China has been booming for the past two years. According to CAAM, sales of electric vehicles in China totaled 171,100 in the first ten months of 2015 alone, which is 2.9 times more than the sales in the same period of last year.
Recently, worldwide competition in the production of electric vehicles has increased markedly against the backdrop of the growing popularity of American cars manufactured by the Tesla company. Late last week, Porsche officially announced that it would spend USD 1 billion on a program for production of electric vehicles, the prototype of which was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in early autumn.
Also last week, the French government announced plans to build an electric vehicle that would be affordable to all categories of the population. According to Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Energy Segolene Royal, the maximum price of such a vehicle could be within the range of USD 5,300-7,500. Meanwhile, India's Tata Motors produces an electric version of its Tata Nano vehicle for USD 2,500, which, however, is not very popular.
