Nevada is starting to look like the place where the electric car's future will be decided. Last June, Tesla broke ground on a $5 billion battery plant in Sparks, and on Wednesday, Chinese start-up Faraday Future announced that it had chosen a Las Vegas suburb as the site for a new $1 billion plant to make electric vehicles. Faraday hopes to roll out a competitor to Tesla's flagship Model S in 2017.
But as glitzy as these bets are, the real action is happening in China, where smoggy skies and government subsidies are creating the perfect conditions for electric vehicles to thrive. The proof is in the numbers. According to data released last week by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of electric cars are poised to exceed those in the U.S. for the first time ever. Already, they've grown 290 percent year-on-year to 171,145 vehicles. They're expected to reach 220,000 to 250,000 for the year, whereas the U.S. market is predicted to top out at around 180,000 cars.
What's fueling the mainland's electric-car surge? As with so many other things in China, cost is the main factor. Take Xindayang, a 14-year-old electric-vehicle manufacturer that recently linked up with Geely, the Chinese car goliath that owns Volvo. Xindayang's recently released D2 is designed for urban-dwellers who drive short distances and don't generally use the highway. It's not a high-end ride: A 2013 review of Xindayang's first model, the D1, claimed it made "golf carts look luxurious by comparison." Meanwhile, according to Forbes, the D2 makes a "harsh rattle" as it goes from 0 to 30 mph in a turtle-like 10 seconds.