Car makers are increasingly responding to the pollution problems that are a part of Chinese cities by selling cars with internal air purifiers.
AAP reports that car makers such as Volvo, Nissan, and PSA Peugeot Citroen are all winning over prospective buyers with state-of-the-art devices that give drivers better air inside their cars than they would be breathing if they were walking outside.
As Edouard de Piray, the Shanghai-based president of Valeo in China explained, "The air quality is a general challenge in the country, and Chinese drivers are more and more conscious of it."
He added that many residents of Chinese citizens “have particle filters at home to protect their children” and that the next step would be to purchase cars with similar systems.
Meanwhile, there are moves afoot to try to decrease the pollution problem with China’s cities. As The Business Spectator reports that the most popular car in China at the moment is the Tesla, an electric car.
Consumers interested in buying electric cars can take advantage of subsidies from Beijing and local governments which encourage them to do so.
However, local protectionism is slowing the electric car market. For example, one of the most popular electric cars is the BYD E6 model which has a range of 300 kilometres after a single re-charge.
The problem is that drivers from China’s two largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai can’t take advantage of 60,000 yuan worth of subsidies from their local governments because they are only available to locally-based manufacturers.