By Miles Downard *
Despite numerous social problems, dubious employment conditions and the odd patent infringement, China’s economy has exploded over the last three decades. The giant of the East churns out product at an alarming rate and is able to do so thanks to a vast – and I mean vast – population.
While this has helped them become an economic super-power, the downside is that the people of the People’s Republic can no longer breathe because of all the pollution their growth has created.
Truth be told, things have become so bad that officials are warning children and elderly folk to stay in doors to avoid the smog; smog so thick that visibility is under 10m and causes airport shutdowns on a pretty regular basis. Officials have even considered building vacuum cleaners to suck up the haze.
Add to that the fact that the Chinese are rapidly switching from walking to scooting or from scooting to driving – especially electric cars. Reports say daily car sales sit somewhere around 30,000 while total ownership is near 120 million. That’s a lot of CO2 floating about.
The knock on is that businesses and regulators alike have gone in search of policies to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint. One such initiative comes from Kandi, an electric car manufacturer which has created a sharing scheme with a twist.
The Kandi machine, as it’s become affectionately known, consists of a giant multi-story warehouse filled to the brim with electric cars. Customers will slot in their credit card at the garage door and out will pop a little Kandi electric car that’s capable of travelling 120km at a top speed of 80km/h – perfect for a trip around a busy city. All for approximately R33/hour.
Kandi, in a joint venture with Geely (who incidentally own a chunk of Volvo), has kicked off the project in Hangzhou and plans to expand to a network of 500 such rental stations over the next four years. Ambitious plans you might think. But with the Chinese government pledging to introduce 2 million electric vehicles by 2020 (backed by R680 billion in subsidies), they might not be so far off the mark.
While the concept doesn’t make much sense in a country such as South Africa – where population density is relatively low while mileage requirements are relatively high – more densely populated nations might find it quite appealing to ditch the associated costs of vehicle ownership for the option of per-hour-rental.
* Miles Downard is the editor of Biznews Motoring.Â
