China's electric car market is booming but can it last?

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The taxi fleets of Beijing are a good place to start looking at how governments can fuel the rise of new technologies.

The introduction of fossil fuel-powered taxis was going to be banned in the city. Thousands of cars are running on batteries. The drivers of electric vehicles don't have to worry about being stuck at a charging station.

In Beijing and many other Chinese cities, electric taxis just go to a battery swap station where a machine takes out the old battery and installs a new one in a matter of minutes.

I-Yun Lisa Hsieh from National Taiwan University says that people don't want to wait two hours for an EV charging station because they want to drive out there and earn some money.

The electric car market in China is growing rapidly. The public is buying electric vehicles in record numbers.

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In July, the China Passenger Car Association predicted that 6 million new electric vehicles would be registered in the country in the next four years.

According to its most recent figures, the company sold 83,135 cars in China in September.

China is ahead of Europe and the US in the adoption of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, with nearly a quarter of all cars newly registered in China now electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. China is the home of half the world's EV's.

Government mandates and incentives are what drives this. The Chinese government has been subsidizing EV purchases for a long time. The value of these subsidies has fallen over time, but there are still many reasons to buy an electric car

Many fossil fuel vehicle buyers in China have to pay for both the car and licence plate. Mr Hsieh said it was expensive. The cost of a new licence plate in the city is over 100,000.

You can get other perks if you choose an EV instead. EV owners are able to drive in bus lanes. They have access to free parking.

There is a price tag on some vehicles. The Mini EV is cheaper than the average EV.

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The entry-level version of this car is ideal for city dwellers and first-time car owners who can afford it.

He says that the vehicles could be sold through a large part of Asia.

China's most popular electric vehicle is the Hong Guang Mini. There are a number of other options at the other end of the price scale, such as Xpeng's P7, for example. In China, both are in the top 10 best-selling electric vehicles.

Lots of companies are competing for a place in the Chinese EV market. Juneyao, an airline, wants to make electric cars, according to a recent report.

The range offered by some battery EV in China is particularly good, according to Pedro Pacheco, an analyst atGartner.

Higher-end EVs are being filled with gadgets and other gizmos in a bid to woo consumers.

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There are a lot of electric cars in China. Is it still going to last? How will it affect the global EV market.

The director of industry analysis at the Economist Intelligence Unit says she has been surprised at how quickly EV have flown out of dealerships in China, but argues that with the removal of subsidies for purchasers of new vehicles, the appetite for EV could diminish.

She says it's hard to see how the EV market can continue to grow.

Due to a fall in electricity production in parts of China, some charging stations have been temporarily stopped.

China faces an uphill battle in being able to supply all of these new vehicles at the same time as it tries to cut coal consumption at its power plants.

One reason why hybrid electric vehicles are better than cars that run on batteries alone is because they will be less reliant on the grid.

Given potential shortages oflithium in the coming years, it's important that they use less of it.

The jury is still out on how the Chinese EV market will affect the rest of the world. Chinese companies are marketing EV's in Latin America, Africa and other places. Nio, a high-end manufacturer, has just opened its second battery swap station in Norway.

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More major car brands would have to adopt battery swapping for the technology to become widespread in Europe, according to Mr. Pacheco. The success of ultra low-cost EV in China is highlighted by him.

He says that China already has affordable electric vehicles. We aren't there yet in Europe.

These are the kinds of vehicles that could be found in emerging markets. It's time for the world to be conquered. It might be possible. The world can wait according to another school of thought.

As long as the Chinese market is booming, they may as well just sell locally. Why wouldn't you?

When the subsidies run out, analysts think it will be very interesting. Maybe we'll all fall in love with electric vehicles thanks to the policies of Chinese authorities. We won't know until we wait and see.