China's Dirty Cities Helping to Reshape Automobile Design Around World

摘要

For global automakers, China is becoming the new California. The U.S. state grabbed the lead a few years ago in establishing fuel-efficiency standards to clean up urban smog. Now, as China struggles with its air-pollution crisis, Beijing increasingly influences the models and technology Detroit, Europe and Japan sell around the world. In response to government rules and incentives that have spurred electric-car sales in China, automakers are beefing up their global electric-vehicle and plug-in offerings. General Motors Co. plans to make a plug-in hybrid version of every Cadillac model. Ford Motor Co. has budgeted $4.5 billion to develop 13 new EVs and plug-in hybrids by 2020, and China is a big reason for both automakers. Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz is selling five plug-ins in China, two of which also sell in the U.S. Similarly, BMW AG is engineering plug-in hybrids it sells worldwide to meet China's electric-drive mandates.