The Chinese Electric Car Race

Hat tip for DeSmogBlog on this news about the Chinese building an electric car that can travel up to 100 km on a single battery charge. It would take 15 minutes to charge to 80% on special charging stations. Price is expected to be $22,000 and government subsidy is possible under the Beijng’s emissions-curbing program.

I have been a proponent of government subsidy for GM Chevy Volt to kick start the electric car revolution. But it looks like if GM manage to survive through bail out, it will be hard for them to beat the price of the Chinese build electric car. (source: Forbes.com). DeSmogBlog compared the GM’s price of $40,000 USD to the Chinese $22,000. (Prius is $37,938).

While Canada and U.S., being an oil producing nation, drag its feet on moving away from reliance on oil, Asia and Europe has less incentive to continue its addiction to oil. So Asia and Europe would likely lead the pack again on making this new technology a reality. Interchangeable simcard cellphone and text messaging have been widely used in Europe and Asia before North America cautiously adopted it. So Canadian’s government inaction could mean we will be a late comer once again. While other nations economy is helped by the increased production in the switch to alternative clean energy source, Canada’s economy if it falls into deep recession would take longer than the rest to recover, just like during the last great depression.