The heavy smog shrouding Beijing this week has proved to be a boon for China’s nascent electric vehicle market, with some dealers saying inquiries about all-electric models are up by nearly a tenth.
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Dong Yang, head of China’s automakers association, said on Thursday that sales of electric vehicles can not maintain their current strong growth, and he predicted that pace of growth will slow next year.
It may be holiday season in Beijing as government has issued red alert for air pollution, but the move showed that toxic air is growing worse in China’s massive capital.
China is to receive a $300m (£198m) loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help it combat unsafe pollution levels in Beijing city and its surrounding area.
The red alert was carried out as the highest warning of its kind from a four color warning system, when heavy smog covered the entire city for the second time around, lingering for many weeks to come.
As of noon, the reading of PM2.5 – particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 microns that poses health risks – was 26 micrograms per cubic meter, down from 216 micrograms per cubic meter at 6 am in the six downtown districts, according to municipal air quality monitors.
“As long as we have information on the coming severe smog, we will take efforts in advance to curb the air pollution”, Li Shixiang, the deputy mayor, said on Thursday.
Under the red alert, Beijing banned outdoor operations on construction sites, and required some industrial plants to limit or stop production.
Wang Cheng is a business man in Beijing. They also told schools to close, though some had reopened by Wednesday.
Much of this air pollution apparently originates from neighboring regions where their pollution levels remained at a hazardous rate, specifically the southern region of Hebei province. “As the day progressed the thick grey haze that blanked the city grew ever more impenetrable”.
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The changes are forecast to reduce Hebei’s annual coal consumption by 12.4 million tons, or 4 percent of its 2012 use, the bank said. BYD, the Chinese EV maker backed by Berkshire Hathaway, had an advertising campaign based on a lower level of pollution warnings that it ran when the red alert hit the city.
