Who wouldn’t buy an EV in China?
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Join us for CoMotion LA ‘26 this November 18-19 for our 10th edition: Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next — featuring the OMF Summit Track.
The EV landscape in the U.S. has become very bleak. The elimination of the EV tax credit has scared off consumers and prompted automakers to cancel investments in new zero-emission vehicles. In July, EVs accounted for less than 6% of new car sales, down from 9% a year before.
The story is very different elsewhere. In Europe, a quarter of new vehicles are EVs and in China, where BYD is rapidly deploying hyper-fast chargers, two-thirds of new vehicles are electric. While some fossil fuel-friendly U.S. leaders might embrace that distinction as a mark of pride, they may still be troubled by the fact that people around the world who used to buy American gas guzzlers are increasingly turning to Chinese EVs.
What you need to know
China’s charging abundance: Chinese automaker BYD has already installed 10,000 hyper-fast EV chargers and plans to have 20,000 deployed by the end of the year. These chargers can take a car from 10 charged to 70% in under five minutes, a paradigm shift that should prompt even the most range-anxious Chinese motorists to go electric. Further underscoring the tremendous potential of China’s nascent auto industry, a survey of British consumers finds that half are up for buying a Chinese car.
Europe’s EV tipping point: EV sales across the 16 largest European markets rose 13% in July, accounting for 25% of all auto sales. In France the EV share in July hit 35%, up from 17% a year ago. That’s not nearly the two-thirds share in China but it beats the hell out of EVs’ measly 6% share in the U.S.
More Americans oppose license plate readers: A poll by YouGov finds that 46% of Americans oppose the use of AI surveillance cameras and license plate readers by police departments, while 38% support them. An intense backlash against AI-powered surveillance tools is pressuring local governments across the U.S. to exit existing contracts with surveillance vendors, most notably Flock Safety. A notable example: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, not generally regarded as a civil libertarian, ordered state agencies to pause funding for Flock cameras.
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Will 20 mph limits become the norm? Writing in the Guardian, transportation commentator Christian Wolmar predicts the “war on motorists,” as conservative parties in Britain have termed it, will succeed. In cities across Europe and the U.K. that have made it easier to walk and bike, few are clamoring for wider roads and faster speeds.
Partner Promo
CoMotion is delighted to be joining CAA and South Florida business leaders at Miami Dade College on Sep 10 for the “Invest: Miami 11th Annual Leadership Summit & Report Launch” to continue the conversation around the opportunities and challenges shaping Miami’s future.
Registration is open for the afternoon, featuring an awards ceremony, live DJ, salsa dance performance, and a raffle for 125,000 American Airlines miles.
For those of you who would like to join us, redeem a 50% discount on afternoon happy hour tickets with code COMOTION50.
What we’re reading
What happens to all of those stolen bikes? Writing for Micromobility Industries, Riya Das takes a look at what’s happening to the more than 2 million bikes stolen in the U.S. every year.
