Monday, October 15, 2007

China as leader for alternative fuel-based vehicles?

It hadn't occurred to me until I read a book review the book Zoom in The Financial Times about China and its burgeoning relationship to cars, and therefore fuel, would be a driver for what that future means.

"Because China has no invested heavily in petrol stations or other infrastructure for conventional cars, it could become a leader in plug-in or hydrogen fuel cell cars. China is a big enough market to sway future global technology." And an interesting take-away for Americans here is, whatever the US wants may or may not matter. China is such an economic force that their country may set the international standards. So what China deems as important, significant, innovative, worthwhile -- that may be the way forward. No matter what Wall Street wants from the potential for a corn ethanol commodity on the stock market or Brazil and sugar ethanol.

"Another new element is the influence of first movers, such as Toyota, on new technology. Thanks to market clout and early investments in hybrid cars, it has captured most of that small but growing market, and forced competitors, such as GM, to license the technology or scramble to develop their own." Toyota made that move primarily becuase they thought the entire US auto industry and buying habits were going to drastically change, starting with California. passed (and then rolled-back) it's Electric Car/Clean Air Act requirements in the early 90s.

Here's to watching an interesting future in personal vehicles and their fuels.

No comments: