Data at Davos forum shows China leading world in EV sector

China has quickly established itself as a world leader in the electric vehicles (EV) sector and will open wider to the world’s market in the next stage, officials and industry players said during the annual Summer Davos Forum held in North China’s Tianjin Municipality from Tuesday to Thursday.

Data presented at the forum showed that China represents a huge slice of the global EV market, with roughly half of the 1.2 million plug-in cars sold in 2017 being sold in China and almost half of all electric cars being manufactured in the country, too.

A decade ago, China started developing the industry in a bid to reduce its environmental footprints and to fight pollution, said Wan Gang, president of the China Association for Science and Technology.

But it turns out that the move is not only an opportunity to tackle air pollution, but also a good chance to upgrade industry and infrastructure in China, Wan told the forum.

“Currently, there are more than 2 million EVs running on Chinese roads, saving around 10 million barrels of oil a year. And the sector is rapidly increasing – in the first half of 2018, China sold over 600,000 EVs,” Wan said.

Michael Flatley, vice president of a Germany-based EV battery company, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the advantages China has, including a unified government policy for the sector and the fact that some Chinese companies had an early awareness of seizing the opportunity of gaining a place in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also help to promote the development of the Chinese EV sector.

“Actually, some of them have already surpassed their Western counterparts thanks to this early awareness,” he noted.

Wan said that the automotive sector will also welcome more foreign investment amid the central government’s push to further open up the country.

But there are also challenges, industry players cautioned at the forum.

For example, there is still a need for strong regulation in terms of emissions, improved infrastructure as well as nonmonetary regulations like free access to bus lanes and entry into city centers.