In the race to reduce carbon emissions, countries from the U.S. to New Zealand are doling out incentives to spur electric-vehicle sales — tactics China used for years as it turned into the biggest EV market on Earth.
Beijing’s success is breathtaking. EVs accounted for a quarter of all passenger cars sold in China last year, far ahead of the roughly one in seven in the U.S. and one in eight in Europe. And the pace is accelerating. HSBC expects the EV penetration rate in the world’s second-largest economy to reach 90% by 2030.
Including plug-in hybrids, China’s clean-car sales hit 5.67 million in 2022 — more than half of all global deliveries. The country will account for about 60% of the world’s 14.1 million new passenger EV sales this year, BloombergNEF predicts.