Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead

When Hong Dan, 26, bought her first car six months ago, the choice to go electric was simple.

Young Beijing resident Dan Hong charges her new electric vehicle at a public charging station.

First, in pollution-conscious Beijing, getting a licence plate for an electric car is easier than a petrol car.

Beijing's annual quota for conventional tail-pipe licence plates was more than halved this year, from 90,000 to 40,000, and the capital is among seven major Chinese cities to restrict conventional licence plates. Would-be drivers wait years in an annual lottery.

Those willing to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle wait just a few months, with 60,000 plates on offer.

Read Kirsty Needham’s story from today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead.”

(The conversation, or the “debate” if you prefer to call it that, about electric cars has not even begun yet. If we are serious about the mitigation of climate change then privately owned cars, electric or otherwise, will disappear from our streets and road network - it is impossible to sustain the energy-rich infrastructure that supports the privately owned vehicle, The conversation we simply have to have will be about how best we structure, set up and operate and public transit system using electric vehicles which are recharged using solar power - Robert McLean)