If you talk about Chinain recent decades the economic revolution of the Asian giant transformed many of its realities, turning it into technological pioneers in various fields. Now its capital, Beijingunderwent a radical transformation, drastically reducing its pollution to move on to the miracle of blue skies. What did the silent revolution of electric cars have to do with all that?
A clarification is in order: Beijing and Beijing They are the same city. Beijing is the traditional Spanish name for the capital of China, and Beijing is the official name of the city according to pinyin, a system that uses the Latin alphabet to represent the sounds of Chinese characters.
In December 2015, a decade ago, an article from the network BBC of London showed how worrying the situation in the Chinese capital was under the title «China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing» (Pollution in China: First red alert in force in Beijing).
There it described that schools were closed and outdoor construction stopped while the first «red alert» for pollution came into effect. That was the first time that the highest possible warning was given, which ended up being a before and after, with a very different reality now.
A publication from January of this year on the website of the China Global Television Network (CGTN)the international television channel network of Central Television, indicated that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment declared «a great victory against air pollution.»
It announced that in 2025 only one day was recorded affected by heavy air pollution, a staggering reduction of approximately 98.3% compared to the 58 days recorded in 2013.
They indicated that according to the national system of the Index of Air Quality (AQI) of Chinaair quality is classified at various levels, from ‘excellent’ to ‘severe pollution’. Severe pollution refers to days with an AQI between 201 and 300, which generally corresponds to 24-hour average PM2.5 concentrations of between 150 and 300 micrograms per cubic meter, according to national standards used by environmental and meteorological authorities.
«This indicates that the days of heavy pollution have been practically eliminated in the Chinese capital«, said that office, while indicating that it is «a historic achievement,» said that office.
«The city’s annual average concentration of PM2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, in 2025 was 27.0 micrograms per cubic meter, marking the first time it fell below the 30 microgram benchmark since monitoring began,» they detailed.
Various portals echoed this news, also highlighting the measures that had been implemented for some time in the Chinese capital. Already in 2013, before the red alert of 2015, the city took serious measures by eliminate more than a million coal boilers by gas or electricity.
In addition, the role of electric cars in the miracle was highlighted, adding more than 600 thousand hybrid or plug-in vehicles, a factor that they classified as a determining factor in reducing pollution.
The BBC indicated that China surprisingly quickly won the global race for electric vehicle batteries and that sought to become the largest electric vehicle market in the world.
There, sales of electric cars grew steadily, going from 5% of the fleet in 2020 to 50% of those in Beijing in 2025. In that city, these cars are excluded from some circulation restrictions due to pollution, which accelerated their sales.
