America already has a playbook for a mass transition to electric vehicles: Just look at China, said Rebecca Tinucci, Uber’s global head of sustainability, at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit on Tuesday. “Fifty-percent of new vehicle sales in China are electric,” Tinucci noted during a panel entitled “Building More Sustainable Cities.” Three years ago, China was pretty much in the same place as the U.S. in terms of EV adoption, added Tinucci, who noted the EV growth slowdown in America.
A big factor is price: Electric vehicles are generally cheaper in China than in America. But it’s about policies, too, Tinucci said: “There’s two things that make Chinese vehicles lower price and more affordable, which is a key challenge. One is certainly subsidies.” The other, she added, is lithium processing, where China dominates.
