As China did the electric cars of the mainstream

“I drive on an electric vehicle because I’m poor,” says Lou Junfong, a private rental driver, which is located on the charger on the outskirts of Guangzhou in southern China.

Standing nearby, Sun Jingguo agrees. “The cost of driving a gasoline car is too expensive. I save money by driving an electric vehicle,” he says.

“In addition, it protects the environment,” he adds, relying on his white Beijing’s Beijing model.

These are the conversations that climate companies dream of hearing. In many countries, electric cars (EVS) are considered luxurious purchases.

But here in China – where almost half of all cars sold last year were electric – it is a banal reality.

At the beginning of the century, China’s leadership outlined plans to dominate the future technology. Once the China’s Bike Nation is now the world leader in EVS.

For more than 18 million Guangzhou Gul, Good.

“When it comes to EVS, China is 10 years later and 10 times better than any other country,” says the sector analyst Michael Dan.

Currently, Chinese Byd is leading the world market EV after the Tesla competitor has overtaken us earlier this year.

Byd sales helped huge domestic markets more than 1.4 billion people, and now he is trying to sell more cars abroad. Also, they are a raft of other Chinese startups that make EV available for the mass market.

So, how did China built this preference and can it be caught?

By seizing the origins of Chinese domination of EV, analysts often lend a gangs Wan – an engineer enrolled in German, who became Minister of Trade and Science in China in 2007.

“He looked back and said, ‘Good news: We are now the largest car market in the world. Bad news: on the streets of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, all I see is foreign brands, “says Mr.

At the time, Chinese brands simply could not compete with European, American and Japanese vehicles for quality and prestige. These companies had unavailable start when it came to the production of gasoline or diesel vehicles.

But China has broad resources, skilled labor and suppliers in the motor. Thus, Mr. Van decided “to change the game and turn the script by going to the electrician”, according to Mr. Dano.

It was a general plan.

Despite the fact that the Chinese government included the EV in the five-year economic base back in 2001, only in the 2010s it began to provide a huge number of subsidies for the growth of the industry.

China, unlike western Democracy capable of mobilizing huge areas of their economy for many years to their goals.

The mammoth infrastructure projects in the country and the dominance in production are evidence of this.

The US Analytical Center, the Strategic and International Studies Center (CSIS) believes that from 2009 to the end of 2023, Beijing spent about $ 231 billion (£ 172 billion), developing an EV branch.

From consumers and cars to electricity suppliers and battery providers, all in China are entitled to money and assistance when it comes to EVS.

For example, he urged byd to move from creating batteries for smartphones to focus on EVS production.

Ningde Catl – which supplies firms such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford – was founded in 2011, and now produces a third of all the batteries used for EVS worldwide.

Such a combination of long -term planning and state financing also allowed China to dominate critical battery supplies.

This helped to create the world’s largest public charging network with stations focused in major cities that put drivers a few minutes away from the nearest charger.

“If you want to make a battery to put in an electric car today, all roads go through China,” says Mr. Dun.

Some call it “state capitalism”. Western countries call it an unfair business practice.

Chinese executives EV insist that all companies, internal or foreign ones have access to the same resources.

As a result, they claim that China is now a thriving start-up sector, caused by fierce competition and culture of innovation.

“The Chinese government is doing the same thing you see in Europe and the United States – providing support for politics, encouraging consumers and infrastructure,” says BBC Brian Gu, President EV Maker XPENG.

“But I think China did it consistently and in such a way that it really contributes to the most competitive landscape that is. No favorableism,” he adds.

XPENG is one of the “Chinese champions”, according to Mr. Gu, moving the branch forward. A little decade and, until the profit is profitable, the startup is already in the top 10 EV manufacturers in the world.

The company has attracted some of the best young graduates of China to the Guangzhou Church headquarters, where accidentally dressed employees sip flat white and internet traders sell cars live.

A brightly colored slide that takes the employees from above to the first floor, seemingly more at home in a silicone valley than in the industrial soul in China.

Despite the quiet atmosphere, Mr. GUB says the pressure to offer consumers the best machines at lower prices, “huge”.

The BBC was invited on the Mona Max XPENG test disk that has just been on sale in China about $ 20,000.

For this price, you get self -control, voice activation, flying beds, movies and music. Small graduates of the Chinese, as we say, see it as standard features to buy the first car.

“The new generation of EV manufacturers … Look at the cars as another animal,” says David Lee, co-founder and Hesai Executive Director, which makes the Lidar Sensing technology used in many self-governing cars.

According to the CSIS study, but young Chinese consumers are certainly attracted to high -level technology, but a huge amount of public costs goes to create EVS financially attractive.

The members of the public receive subsidies for trades in their non -electric car for EV, as well as taxes from taxes and subsidized bid at government charges.

These benefits forced Mr. Lou to go electric two years ago. He paid 200 yuan ($ 27.84; £ 20.72) to fill the car for 400 km (248 miles) for driving. Now it costs him a quarter of it.

People in China also usually pay thousands for the registration plate of the car – sometimes more than the cost of the machine itself – as part of state efforts to limit traffic and pollution. Mr. Lou now gets his green free.

“Rich in Drive Drive gasoline cars because they have unlimited resources,” Lou says. “EV just makes sense to me.”

Another proud owner of EV in Shanghai, who wanted to use his English name Daisy, says that instead of chargeing her car at the train station, she changes her car’s battery at one of the many automated replacement stations provided by EV Maker Nio.

In three minutes, the machines replace the flat battery fully charged. This modern technology is less than the price of the fuel tank.

Government subsidies are based on China’s growth as unjust countries seeking to protect their automobile industries.

The US, Canada and the European Union have imposed significant import taxes on Chinese EVS.

However, the UK states that it does not plan to follow the example – making it an attractive market for firms such as XPENG, which started delivering its G6 British consumers in March, and byD, which launched the Dolphin Surf model this month and is available for just $ 26 100.

It should be music for the ears of Western governments, which are delighted to refuse to transition to EVS, which the UN calls “the main” to avoid a climatic catastrophe.

Several Western countries, including in the UK, say that by 2030 they prohibit the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles. No country can help make it a reality than China.

“The Chinese think about the future where they produce virtually every car for the world. They look around, saying,” Can anyone do it better than us? “,” says Mr. Dan.

“Leaders in Detroit, Nagoya, Germany, UK, everywhere around the world, shake their heads. This is a new era, and the Chinese are now very confident in their prospects.”

Despite the environmental benefits, there is still suspicion that it rests on Chinese technology.

Former MI6 leader Britain, Sir Richard Derilov, recently called Chinese EVS “Computers on Wheels” that can be “controlled by Beijing”.

His claim that Chinese EVS could once consolidate British cities were fired by Byd Lee executive vice president in a recent BBC interview.

“Who can claim anything if you lose the game. But what?” she said.

“Byd pay for a very high level of data safety. We use local carriers for all our data. In fact, we do it 10 times better than our competition.”

However, the concern of Sir Richard Echo was preceded by the debate of national security associated with Chinese technology.

This includes the Huawei telecommunications infrastructure manufacturer, which was banned in several western countries, as well as an application in the social media Tiktok, which is prohibited from the UK government.

But for Sun Jingguo in Guangzhou, the message is simple.

“I think the world should thank China for bringing this technology into the world,” he laughs. “I’m doing.”

Additional report by Theo Leggett, International Business Corresponding in London.