Why Tesla Motors Is Moving Fast in China

Update 8_29: Bob Lutz always liked a straight line and a gas tax over numerous regulations. In China, BYD Company's Wang Chunafu says China is considering implementing a gas tax on consumers. Can anyone say, hello EVs!

Tesla Motors is having a solid day on Wall Street—up more than 2% on 8/29—due its announcement with China's 2nd biggest phone carrier about its plans to build 400 charging stations for electric cars. 

According to the AP, "plans call for China Unicom Ltd. to provide space for construction and basic services in 120 cities while Tesla Motors operates the stations. The two companies also will build 20 "supercharger stations" in 20 cities to offer high-speed charging.

This is solid news for the Tesla as it tries to gain a strong foothold in the nascent electric car industry in China, but the big news this week (Aug 26) comes via Bloomberg where "China is considering providing as much as 100 billion yuan (US $16 billion) in government funding to build electric vehicle charging facilities to spur demand for clean cars, according to two people familiar with the matter."

U.S. plug cumulative sales compared to only 78,000 plug-in cars on the road in China. (Source: Bloomberg News)Tesla is moving fast as it tries to compete with China's home grown EV car companies, BYD Co. and Kandi Technologies. However, Chinese car consumers like foreign gas cars and this may translate to foreign electric vehicles with luxury underpinnings, such as the Model S and Model X, coming in 2015.

The AP story reports that Tesla has 200 charging points in China, which I translate as being 200 "units" via their existing supercharging stations. So with another 20 supercharging stations and average of 6 units, this would give the company more than 1400 charging units after installation in targeted locations in China.

"This cooperation will accelerate the Tesla charging network nationwide," said a company spokeswoman, Peggy Yang, in an email.

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