by Devin James Benavidez
Recently, there has been a lot of publicity surrounding the ongoing traffic jam outside of Beijing. The 60 mile-long traffic jam involves an estimated 10,000 vehicles and stretches from the capital city to Inner Mongolia. The congestion originally developed as a result of a freeway maintenance project and a spike in the number of trucks carrying coal from the reserves in Inner Mongolia to power plants in Beijing. As I write, the traffic jam has been going on for eleven days, and some officials estimate that it will not completely clear up until after the road maintenance is finished in mid-September. Many have argued that this traffic snafu symbolizes the pitfalls underlying China’s overheated economic development. However, the growing number of cars on the road gives Chinese auto manufacturers a chance to become strategic players in the future of the global auto industry.
Recently, there has been a lot of publicity surrounding the ongoing traffic jam outside of Beijing. The 60 mile-long traffic jam involves an estimated 10,000 vehicles and stretches from the capital city to Inner Mongolia. The congestion originally developed as a result of a freeway maintenance project and a spike in the number of trucks carrying coal from the reserves in Inner Mongolia to power plants in Beijing. As I write, the traffic jam has been going on for eleven days, and some officials estimate that it will not completely clear up until after the road maintenance is finished in mid-September. Many have argued that this traffic snafu symbolizes the pitfalls underlying China’s overheated economic development. However, the growing number of cars on the road gives Chinese auto manufacturers a chance to become strategic players in the future of the global auto industry.
(Photo Courtesy of Newsopi.com)
China’s automotive industry is an excellent indicator of the speed at which the Chinese economy is developing, even in the midst of the global recession. China already has the biggest and fastest growing auto market in the world. For example, last year 13.6 million cars were sold in China, compared to only 10.4 million in the U.S. The growth of the Chinese automotive industry has led it to the brink of becoming a major automotive exporter to other regions of the globe. This will have huge implications in that Chinese auto manufacturers will soon have the power to influence what people will be driving in many parts of the world. In the fight for the development of clean energy technologies, the Chinese auto industry can play a very strategic role.
The Chinese government has already committed to becoming a leader in green energy technologies. To provide tangible evidence that they are attempting to follow through on said commitment, the Chinese government just released a plan which would invest billions of dollars in the development of technologies for hybrid and electric vehicles. At this point, only minimal information about the plan was released by officials, but there have been some reports from state-run media in China that the government intends to invest $15 billion in this program. If true, this would certainly be one of the most ambitious investments in the development of hybrid and electric vehicle technologies to date.
Announced by the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, this plan hopes to produce over a million hybrid and electric vehicles over the next few years. Officials from Beijing said that they expect 500,000 energy efficient cars to enter the market each year over the next three years. This falls in line with China’s overarching promise to combat pollution and to reduce its carbon footprint, while simultaneously creating jobs in the emerging renewable energy technologies sector.
Devin Benavidez is a Research Intern at Bridging Nations in Washington, D.C., and has a BA in political science from California State University, Long Beach.
China’s automotive industry is an excellent indicator of the speed at which the Chinese economy is developing, even in the midst of the global recession. China already has the biggest and fastest growing auto market in the world. For example, last year 13.6 million cars were sold in China, compared to only 10.4 million in the U.S. The growth of the Chinese automotive industry has led it to the brink of becoming a major automotive exporter to other regions of the globe. This will have huge implications in that Chinese auto manufacturers will soon have the power to influence what people will be driving in many parts of the world. In the fight for the development of clean energy technologies, the Chinese auto industry can play a very strategic role.
The Chinese government has already committed to becoming a leader in green energy technologies. To provide tangible evidence that they are attempting to follow through on said commitment, the Chinese government just released a plan which would invest billions of dollars in the development of technologies for hybrid and electric vehicles. At this point, only minimal information about the plan was released by officials, but there have been some reports from state-run media in China that the government intends to invest $15 billion in this program. If true, this would certainly be one of the most ambitious investments in the development of hybrid and electric vehicle technologies to date.
Announced by the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, this plan hopes to produce over a million hybrid and electric vehicles over the next few years. Officials from Beijing said that they expect 500,000 energy efficient cars to enter the market each year over the next three years. This falls in line with China’s overarching promise to combat pollution and to reduce its carbon footprint, while simultaneously creating jobs in the emerging renewable energy technologies sector.
Devin Benavidez is a Research Intern at Bridging Nations in Washington, D.C., and has a BA in political science from California State University, Long Beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment