The U.S. & China: Moving Forward Together on Electrification
Posted November 17, 2009 at 9:59 am 
Filed in: Earlier today, President Obama and President Hu Jintao announced the launch of a U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative. As part of the initiative, the countries will: 1) explore development of joint product and testing standards for electric vehicles; 2) link cities with electric vehicle demonstration programs in both countries to examine their experiences and try to learn from them; 3) create a multi-year roadmap to identify R&D needs for EVs and other related issues; and 4) improve public understanding of electric vehicle technologies.
This represents a strong endorsement of the administration’s commitment to deploying electric vehicles, which complements the Electrification Roadmap issued by the Electrification Coalition yesterday.
There is a growing consensus that the establishment of standards for GEVs might play an important role in facilitating their deployment. For instance, by standardizing battery design, automakers may be able to achieve scale quicker and take greater advantage to achieve economies of scale and reduce costs. Similarly, by working together to improve public understanding of GEVs, we can perhaps accelerate consumer acceptance, thereby improving GEVs position in the market place.
Most importantly, perhaps, is the implicit acknowledgement in today’s announcement that GEVs need to be deployed as integrated systems, including both the vehicles and the infrastructure, and that the best deployment strategy is to concentrate vehicles in a limited number of communities and learn from them before expanding the deployment to the broader population.
It is clear from this announcement that the governments in the world’s two largest car markets understand the importance of the transformation to GEVs. Implementing the goals stated by the Presidents, and using the policies outlined in the Electrification Roadmap, the government can help achieve its initial goal of 1 million vehicles on the road by 2015, placing it firmly on the path to wholesale transformation of the automotive fleet to one powered by electricity.
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