Tesla Motors’ first delivery of a car to a Chinese customer tomorrow will come in a week when electric vehicles are centre stage at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition.
But the amount of attention lavished on the sector at the Beijing show belies a market in which fewer than 7,000 units were sold in the first quarter of the year, including about 4,100 electric vehicles and 2,750 hybrids. That compares with sales in Norway of 1,200 electric vehicles per month, helped by tax breaks and a network of free recharging stations.
In China, the government has also made a concerted effort to promote electric cars. However, the lack of supporting infrastructure continues to confound Beijing’s ambitions for the sector.