<story><title>Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/19/global-sales-of-electric-cars-accelerate-fast-in-2020-despite-covid-pandemic</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>godmode2019</author><text>&amp;#x27;Global sales&amp;#x27; I hope everyone understands in China it is very hard to get a licence plate, the government allows you to get a licence plate if you buy a heavily subsidised electric car. The aim is to stimulate demand to develop an industry. Large cities also banned motorbikes and scooters, with the same aim.&lt;p&gt;This is no way market driven demand, BYD is a very interesting company to look into. It is my understanding that Warren buffet has a large share in this company.&lt;p&gt;My believe is China sees oil dependence as a long term strategic weakness. In the event of a navel blockade it will be much harder for them to get the oil they need to run the economy. If a large part of the consumer sector is driven by electric powered by local sources (coal, hydro, nuclear) they can keep the logistic channels open. As a side benefit they get to fund a sector hoping to have the same success as they did with solar panels.&lt;p&gt;The article might have pointed this out but it was paid past a certain point on my device.</text></comment>
<story><title>Sales of electric cars up by 43% in 2020</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/19/global-sales-of-electric-cars-accelerate-fast-in-2020-despite-covid-pandemic</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>danielheath</author><text>Up 43% is great news. To put it in context: There were 91 million cars produced last year (per wikipedia) and 3 million electric cars sold.</text></comment>