Portions of Tesla’s service centers in China are being converted into what has been dubbed “experience centers” — where local schoolchildren can learn about electric vehicles, and other subjects, while on field trips — according to recent reports.
While the decision to create these “experience centers” for electric vehicle (EV) education certainly makes sense from the perspective of Tesla — familiarizing locals with the Tesla brand from an early age, etc — given the great air-pollution problems in the country, general EV education is no doubt a net benefit to public health as well. Getting more people to switch to EVs will help reduce air pollution there notably. (Of course, a substantial portion of the country’s air-pollution problem originates in the industrial and commercial sectors, and isn’t simply the result of gas- and diesel-powered cars.)
“According to Hybrid Cars, the California-based EV maker is bringing in kindergarten kids for field trips and teaching them about science and, of course, electric-vehicle technology. Tesla confirmed to Autoblog late Wednesday that the company brought 32 kindergarteners to its Yizhuang store in Beijing for an education session late last week,” Autoblog writes.
“Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk went on record to say that getting a sales foothold in China would be an uphill battle. Last year, Tesla sold a fraction of its 10,000-unit target for 2015 China sales. This year might be better, since China is expected to generate over 300,000 electric car sales this year. Tesla appeared to fare better in Hong Kong, where 80% of all the electric vehicle sold there last year were Tesla Model S sedans.”
Considering the enormous potential of the Chinese market as far as electric vehicle sales go, I can’t really blame Tesla for embracing the sorts of tactics discussed above. Perhaps they will work somewhat?
That’s great! We should be doing that here in the US!