About 70 per cent of Chinese consumers said they regretted buying new energy vehicles (NEV), mostly electric cars. Those cars had a 10 per cent recall rate last year following a decade of subsidies by the Chinese government that have helped prompt the creation of 487 companies since 2013, not all of which are producing high-quality cars. One million NEVs were sold in China in the first 11 months of 2018, up 68 per cent from 2017. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: China is trying to tackle the quality problem with new rules incentivizing car-makers to produce NEVs that can go longer distances without being charged. That is creating significant opportunity for companies like Tesla, which broke ground on a Shanghai factory in January, since its cars last longer without charging than those from Chinese automakers like Beijing Automobile Works or Hit BYD. The Chinese government’s focus on quantity is displeasing some consumers, but it’s helping fight climate change due to the sheer number of electric vehicles being added to the streets. Sales of electric buses alone have risen so much that by the end of 2019, 270,000 barrels of diesel a day worldwide will have been displaced.