The 26th International Electric Vehicle Symposium opened Sunday at Los Angeles Convention Center, with more than 200 exhibitors and thousands of attendees observing and discussing the latest trends in the e-transportation industry.
In addition to US exhibitors, about 30 Chinese companies showed their products in the 4-day event, which was hosted by Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) and organized by the World Electric Vehicle Association in cooperation with the European Association for Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and the Electric Vehicle Association of Asia Pacific.
Enterprises from Germany, Britain, Japan were also out in force at the demonstrations.
Toyota will debut its new RAV4 Monday during the symposium, while Honda, CODA, GM Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Smith EV and VIA all brought their EVs to the exhibition for test drive. ABB, AeroViroment, Evatran and some other companies showed their EV charging-related products at the exhibition.
Market trends, public policy, environment impact and issues related to power storage, charging infrastructure, public education, work force training and many other topics are discussed during the symposium.
Ma Xiaofeng, executive director of China’s Tonghe Electronics, told Xinhua at the company’s booth that through the product demonstrations and the topics of conference, it could be obviously seen that EVs are getting closer to consumers.
“At least more charging infrastructure have been built in the world,” said Ma.
The 25th International Electric Vehicle Symposium was held in November 2010 in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city.
According to EDTA, there are more than 40 hybrid and 6 plug-in cars on the US market with sales of over 117,000 in the past 4 months, which represents a 45-percent increase year-on-year.
Some 48 US states and the District of Columbia offer tax credits or other non-monetary incentives to consumers purchasing fuel-efficient hybrids and plug-ins.
