China’s crackdown on vehicle pollution will turn the world’s largest auto market into a hub for cutting edge electric car technologies previously exported from Europe and the United States, industry executives at the Shanghai motor show said. A raft of proposals to promote cleaner driving is now encouraging foreign automakers to do more research in China, potentially turning the country into a world leader in a technology predicted to be a major force in the future of the industry. “We are convinced China will become the leading market for electromobility,” Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess told Reuters on the sidelines of the motor show. For years, carmakers have struggled to gain economies of scale to bring down the cost of electric cars, but proposals by Beijing to require automakers to boost sales of so-called “new energy vehicles” has given a powerful incentive for them to focus the development of such vehicles in China.
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