China: Car Sales Up, Gas Sales Flat

Folks who disagree with me on the need for strong energy security legislation. This year China has indeed seen its people buy lots more automobiles, but gasoline sales in China have remained flat. Some folks have floated a conspiracy theory, that the Chinese government is buying cars and stockpiling them, just to make it look like the economy is humming. As usual, the reality is less X-Files-y and more mundane:

Kevin Wale, the president of General Motors China, said that automakers knew who was buying their cars and saw no evidence of a car-buying conspiracy. Sharp improvements in fuel economy — partly because of government mandates and partly because of a shift to smaller cars — help explain the slow growth in gasoline sales, he said.

A series of recent increases in regulated fuel prices may have also discouraged some driving, he added [Kevin Bradsher, "An Oddity in China: Car Sales Leap, but Not Gas Sales," New York Times, 2009.12.09].

Check that out: the Chinese are able to increase their economic activity and improve their standard of living (if you consider adding car payments, maintenance costs, and parking fees to your life an "improvement") without a massive increase in realted energy consumption. The Chinese have the will to use technology and regulation to do more with less. Do we Americans?