The SAIC-GM-Wuling Mini EV, China's best selling electric vehicle in 2021. Starting at $4,500, the Mini is a hit among young people who customize it with exotic decals.
China’s appetite for electric vehicles (EVs) has shifted into high gear, with homegrown companies moving to the fore. EV sales nationwide increased by roughly 150 percent to more than 3 million last year, according to figures from the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and they are expected to double again in 2022, predicts the China Passenger Car Association.
The EV boom has given China’s auto industry a much-needed burst of speed, with sales of all passenger cars rising last year for the first time since 2017 — despite another drop in the sale of cars powered by internal combustion engines.
As China’s transition to electric vehicles motors ahead, local automakers have been the main beneficiaries. Eight of the top ten electric car models sold in China in 2021 were produced by Chinese carmakers, with foreign brands like Audi, GM, and Volkswagen — dominant for decades in China — lagging behind.
This week, The Wire looks at China
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Increasingly, Democrats and Republicans believe that climate change and China pose a single interconnected challenge. As a result — and for the first time ever — a window is opening for bipartisan cooperation on climate policy. Historically progressive ideas like a 'carbon border adjustment mechanism' now have conservative champions, for instance. But with Washington's main focus on the Warming War with China, can it still save the planet?
A look at China’s electricity grid: how it works, who foots the bill, and how its structure leads to power crunches and expensive prices despite the relative abundance of energy in China.
The academic talks about the changing understanding of Leninist regimes; common misperceptions of the post-Mao era; and what the collapse of the Soviet Union means for China today.
