Stanford Energy Seminar | Understanding the Rise of China’s Electric Vehicle Industry | Shanjun Li, Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford University

The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more. 

About the talk

China has emerged as the global leader in clean energy industries, reshaping the trajectory of the energy transition worldwide. This talk examines the rapid rise of China’s electric vehicle (EV) industry. I discuss how coordinated industrial policies, consumer incentives, and rapid expansion of charging infrastructure helped scale early adoption. Over time, intense competition, learning-by-doing in battery production, and a dense, clustered supply chain drove down costs and improved quality. The interaction between policy and market forces offers important lessons for accelerating clean energy transitions in other countries. 

Shanjun Li is the Steven and Roberta Denning Global Sustainability Professor and a Senior Fellow at both the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). His research focuses on environmental and energy economics, urban and transportation economics, empirical industrial organization, and the Chinese economy. His recent work examines pressing sustainability challenges and the rapid rise of clean energy industries in China, exploring their global implications to inform evidence-based policymaking.

Anyone with an interest in energy is welcome to join! You can enjoy seminars in the following ways:

• Attend live. The auditorium may change quarter by quarter, so check each seminar event to confirm the location. Explore the current quarter's schedule.
• Watch live in a browser livestream if available. Check each seminar event for its unique livestream URL.
• The recording of this session will not be made public but you may watch recordings of past seminars 
  • Available on the Past Energy Seminars page and the Energy Seminars playlist of the Stanford Energy YouTube channel
• (For students) Take the seminar as a 1-unit class (CEE 301/ENERGY 301/MS&E 494)

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