Natto Thoughts Explainer: China’s Great Leap Forward into a Brand-new Electric Vehicle Industry
China’s top-down approach to building its EV industry, a key element of a post-carbon future, has led it to dominate the market, increasing the country’s influence in global economic competition.
As the world’s largest market for new energy vehicle production and sales for eight consecutive years, China has worked for over 30 years on the development of electric vehicles (EVs), with three distinct stages. Pressures to safeguard the environment, reduce reliance on imported oil, and use emerging technology to develop the economy have driven the rapid growth of the Chinese EV industry. The government’s approach to this emerging industry utilized a top-down design planning strategy with financial incentives to form a brand-new industry quickly, then adapted it to a market-oriented system to increase competition once the industry had a considerable number of players. The thriving of China’s EV industry likely increases the country’s influence in global economic competition.
The Road to a Brand-new EV Industry: Three Stages
China’s development of the EV industry has had three distinct stages:
