I have been reading Two Billion Cars, a recent book by Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon, which considers the implications of the expected global growth of motor vehicles from the present billion to double that number within twenty years.  This is a useful source, particularly about developments in the US – why the Prius hybrid became a cultural icon (less the cash saved through fuel economy, more the symbolism of ‘doing the right thing’ by the environment); and how California has attempted to pioneer low emission vehicles (successfully for noxious emissions, less evidently so for zero carbon).

A chapter on China records the rapid expansion of motorization and the limited efforts as yet to innovate more environmentally acceptable vehicles. The authors conclude optimistically that China will play a leadership role in transforming vehicles, fuels and mobility - in part because the alternative involves damaging the planet as well as energy insecurity.  

In the meantime, the Financial Times of 10 July reports that passenger car sales in China rose 48% in June on the same month last year. and the latest forecast for annual sales is 7m, up from 5.8m at the begining of the year.