China plays leapfrog with electric cars

Word to the wise - we should get on this electric car thing now before China officially beats us to it. According to the New York Times, China is applying itself to leading the world in electric car development, in part because they can’t produce traditional cars fast enough to compete with other countries that have pulled ahead. But while other industrial powers - namely the US - hem and haw over infrastructural concerns and social/political expedience, China plans to leapfrog current technology while it still has a chance.

Another factor worth considering is that China really wants to “decrease its dependence on oil, which comes from the Mideast and travels over sea routes controlled by the United States Navy.” In other words, a head start on electric cars will get them out from under our geopolitical thumb.

Meanwhile, back in the States, GM is hoping that the Chevy Volt will be enough to put the company back on all four wheels (financially speaking, it’s up on blocks in the front yard right now). So of course everyone in the media is speculating that the Volt is too expensive, and even President Obama thinks it won’t be enough to keep GM from a mandatory restructuring. Thanks for keeping the faith, guys.

In the meantime, there’s still Tesla, who we’ll be talking about next time, and the way things are going, there’s definitely some promise in the Chevrolet Tantrum.