World Car-Free Day

September 22^nd is World Car-Free Day. Since France initiated the no-card day in 1998, more than 2,000 cities around the world have joined the successful environmental campaign. On the car-free day, people are encouraged to ride bikes, use public transport, or walk to work, school, and shopping rather than driving their cars. The numerous benefits of going car-free are obvious, including reduced air pollution and preventing traffic accidents.

The Rise of Green Vehicles in Shenzhen

Nevertheless, care-free days are also an opportunity to highlight how vehicles can be used in different ways, stressing the alternatives to polluting vehicles. For example, Shenzhen, China’s first Special Economic Zone, has transformed over 15,000 buses to an all-electric fleet over the past nine years. Moreover, all Shenzhen’s taxis are electric vehicles now, cutting carbon emission by about 850,000 tons a year. While strong political willing might be the reason why Shenzhen could achieve this significant accomplishment, other factors including government subsidies, partnership with auto manufactures, and extensive network of charging stations are also crucial to achieve transformation.

Remaining Challenges

There are still some challenges to green vehicles. On the one hand, gaining the acceptance of electric vehicles by consumers remains a big challenge. Aiming to nudge consumer behavior, Shenzhen government issues licenses to electric vehicles buyers immediately but order those of petrol vehicles to enter a lottery for a license. On the other hand,

the construction of charging stations struggling be profitable until electric vehicles reach economies of scale are subsidized by local governments, which results in huge financial burdens to taxpayers.