The taste for tiny EVs has become a quirky subplot in China’s push to become a world leader in electric cars. Roughly 1.75 million micro-EVs were sold in China last year, more than twice the sales of regular EVs, of around 777,000, industry executives estimate. Most of the tiny ones were sold in a handful of rural provinces. The market is still growing rapidly, with some 400 Chinese manufacturers building countless models.
Small SuccessIn China demand for micro-EVs is significantlyoutsripping demand for full-size electricvehicles.
The government has lavished subsidies on Chinese EV makers. But the micro-EVs beloved in the countryside—cheap, slow and extremely low-tech—aren’t what Beijing’s mandarins had in mind. Indeed, many Chinese cities, including some near Gaotang, have banned them entirely, encouraging people to buy full-size EVs instead.
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