For three months in a row, China has sold more cars than the United States.  According to statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the country’s March new car sales reached a record of 1.11 million, compared to the United States’ 858,000, making China the world’s largest automobile market, at least for the time being.

With more disposable income, affluent Chinese are increasingly spending on big-ticket items such as cars.  More than a convenient mode of transportation, owning a passenger car, especially a brand-name, foreign-produced, luxury one, manifests status and lifestyle in a society that has become increasingly unequal and hierarchical.

Recent car sales in China also have been boosted by various incentives introduced as part of government stimulus plans, including one to rejuvenate the stalled automobile industry.  The government has slashed sales taxes on cars with engines of 1.6 liters or less and subsidized the purchase of alternative energy vehicles.

However, topping the sales lists are models made by joint ventures between Chinese and foreign automakers – Volkswagen from Germany, General Motors from the United States, Honda from Japan, and Hyundai from Korea.  As the critical designs, technology, and know-how of these joint ventures come mostly from foreign sources, the more cars sold in China, the more profits these joint ventures’ foreign parent companies are able to recoup.  For example, while experiencing plummeting sales elsewhere, General Motors expects to double its growth in China this year.

The implications of having more cars on China’s roads probably could only be felt in the years ahead.  First, with more than 53,000 kilometers of highways as of the end of 2007, China is already the second largest in the world in terms of roads, after the United States.  It may not be able to construct enough highways and roads to keep pace with car sales.  In the cities, the traffic situation will further deteriorate, which will translate into more loss of time, and in turn, money.

Second, rising car ownership is not good news to China, which already is heavily dependent upon foreign oil.  Not only does the oil come from the Mideast and travel over sea routes controlled by the U.S. Navy, increasing gasoline consumption in China is likely to drive up oil prices again in the international market.  Eventually, drivers as well as ordinary consumers will feel the pain caused by the skyrocketing fuel prices.

Third, more cars in China will put more pressure on the country’s smog-darkened skies.  Although gasoline is unlikely to overtake coal, which still is used to generate three-quarters of electricity in China, as the major producer of greenhouse gases, there is doubt that domestically made small vehicles are fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.

This raises further questions as to whether a stricter car greenhouse gas emissions standard should be imposed to curb the rapidly growing emissions of greenhouse gases in China and when next generation energy-saving vehicles will be on the Chinese roads.

In fact, China has been taking on the energy and environment challenges and is ambitious to become one of the leading producers of green vehicles in the world.  The fact that it lags behind the United States, Japan, and other countries in making gasoline-powered vehicles may not only motivate it but also make it easier to leapfrog to new automobile technology.

The appointment of Wan Gang in 2006 as minister of science and technology, the first non-Chinese Community Party member to hold such a ministerial position in some thirty years, was to tap his expertise on clean-energy vehicles.  The former Audi auto engineer in Germany returned to China to become the chief scientist of its electric car endeavor.

Efforts have been made to develop and produce hybrid and electric vehicles and vehicles powered by other green technologies.  These tasks seem to be more urgent and relevant as China surpasses the United States in car sales.