Copenhagen's baby step on climate change: More electric cars?

Copenhagen's baby step on climate change: More electric cars?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1130/p08s01-comv.html

Apparently both the U.S. and China have agreed that an important step to combat climate change is to have more electric cars.

During his trip to the climate-change conference, President Obama can point to his recent pact with Beijing to jointly share information on standards, research, and demonstration of such vehicles....Mr. Obama is banking heavily on electric and hybrid cars to reshape the world's energy future. Earlier this year, he promised to "put one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on America's roads by 2015." But besides the new cooperation with China and the billions in subsidies to bolster this small industry, his main policy tool is to push automakers to produce fleets that run with an average 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

China is industrializing and that's a big driving factor in growth of fossil fuel use. By steering China (and India) towards a more efficient transport system it would change China's environmental footprint as they industrialize.

The article also steers into debate over how to measure fuel efficiency of electric cars. It is rather silly to equate electric kilowatt-hours/mile ratings into miles/gallon but on the other hand miles/gallon is a familiar measure.