Electric cars hog spotlight at Shanghai auto show
The Shanghai Auto Show opened to the media on Monday (April 19).
And there's no doubting the stars of this year's event.
Electric vehicles are once again hogging the limelight.
Among major commitments...
BMW says it is aiming to have a quarter of its sales in the country be electric vehicles by 2025.
Japan's Nissan said its focus in the country would now be electrified too.
And local brand GAC said half of its sales would be electric by 2035.
It's also planning to roll out a new vehicle with phonemaker Huawei after 2024.
The electric focus comes as China gets serious about emissions.
It wants to see them peak before the end of the decade, and then become carbon neutral by 2060.
To get there, Polestar chief Thomas Ingelath says it's won't be enough to just electrify cars:
"One thing is that we have to get the offer of green energy to the customer and the other thing is that us, as a car producer, have to go to, as the end of the day, zero carbon footprint when the car leaves gate of the factory."
One shadow hangs over the event.
The global shortage of chips continues to roil output around the world.
Volkswagen said Sunday (April 18) that the silicon drought was making it hard to plan production from one week to the next.
The Shanghai show opens to the public from Wednesday (April 21).
