Courtesy-Hindustan Times
Providing the backdrop to daily life in most metropolises across the world, the incessant noise of throbbing engines and clashing gears are found missing by the visitors to the Southern Chinese city of Liuzhou, and that is because making the city of 4 million the effective capital of the biggest EV market in the world almost 30% of the car’s sold in the Southern city the previous year which is more than five times China’s average, were electric, as shared by WAYS Information Technology which is a Guangzhou based consulting firm.
Along with having its air and water quality among the best in a nation synonymous with choking pollution, for electric vehicle penetration, Liuzhou trails only Oslo, globally.
Along with making a concerted effort to overcome concerns over battery safety, reliability and range which has held back electric car take-up globally, the green dividend is an unexpected bonus of a push by the authorities of the city to make Liuzhou an electric vehicle manufacturing hub.
To meet ambitious emission targets, as they try and convince drivers to give up their gas guzzlers, it is an approach that might provide a blueprint for other cities across the globe. As compared to the conventional cars outside of a few pockets in Europe like Norway and Sweden, the sales still lag well behind them although the governments from Germany to the United States offer subsidies on the purchase of electric vehicles.
For legacy automakers like Volkswagen AG, General Motors Co. who are among those pumping tens of billions of dollars into high stakes bet that the future is electric Liuzhou’s strategy might also turn out to be instructive for them.