As oil becomes more difficult to access, techniques to create liquid fuels from coal are now being vigorously pursued in the US, China, India, Australia and South Africa. Vehicles should be subject to similar energy labeling and efficiency improvement requirements as other energy-consuming appliances. Figures showed that by 2007, China was home to approximately thirty million private motor vehicles. Around 7 million passenger cars were sold in 2007, with a further 2.5 million commercial vehicles, making a rise of 22 percent on the previous year. At this staggering rate of growth, the total fleet could increase more than ten-fold to 250 million by 2030.

But China is seeking its solution. In Tianjin, a port city some 125 km to the east of Beijing, an electric vehicle factory is currently under construction, which will boast a capacity of 20,000 units per year. When completed, the Tianjin-Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Company will be the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world by some distance, and it will be a Chinese company using Chinese technology, with plans to export half of its annual production to the US and Europe.