California is using China to pressure Detroit over battery-powered vehicles

In today's NYTimes:

China’s push to become a major player in electric cars is already shaking up the global auto industry. California’s governor is hoping it will also give the state an advantage in its continuing showdown with Detroit over battery-powered vehicles.

Gov. Jerry Brown said on Wednesday evening at an event in San Francisco that China’s electric-car effort would help California withstand demands from American automakers that the state ease back on its effort to put more clean-burning vehicles on the road. California mandates that manufacturers sell a small but growing percentage of electric cars or plug-in hybrid vehicles, which run on both gasoline and electricity.

Detroit says the mandate is technologically infeasible.

“Even now, some of the automobile companies are trying to come out and say ‘Gee, the standards in a few years will be too tough,’” Governor Brown said. “‘Will you let us off the hook?’”

But speaking at the The New York Times’s Climate Tech conference, Governor Brown said China’s push puts pressure on Detroit’s automakers to more quickly embrace electric cars or be overwhelmed by the competition.