usatoday.com... With big names like Victory Bull, Power Pioneer and Constant Wealth, the small vehicles satisfy a growing desire in China for cheap transportation.
Almost 100 different makers of the vehicles have emerged in recent years in east China's Shandong province, says state-run Beijing Daily newspaper. Manufacturers sold more than 20,000 vehicles last year, far outpacing China's paltry sales of full-speed electric cars. In 2015 sales are expected to hit 300,000, and rise to 1 million by 2020.
...Prized in poorer communities for their price tag, minicars are a hit in megacities like Beijing because they don't come under the limits imposed on drivers of larger gas vehicles to cut down on traffic and pollution.
Minicar drivers don't have to wait years to win a license plate in a lottery, and they don't have to keep their vehicles off the road one day each working week as regular drivers do.
Wang Yufeng owns and rents out two Buick minivans, made by General Motors in Shanghai, but prefers his Rich Road minicar, a 4-door ultra-compact 3-wheeler.
"No other car is as convenient as this; I can drive and park anywhere, anytime, I have heating and a radio," says Wang, 49. "I wish the government would issue licenses and make these vehicles legal."
China appears to be going the other way, advising citizens not to buy the vehicles, especially for the elderly.
...A minicar "will be quicker and more environmentally friendly," says Han, although more minicars means more demand for electricity from coal-burning power plants blamed for much of Beijing's chronic air pollution.
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