As we noted back in April, China was due to pass the United States in amount of CO2 emitted earlier than the previously-expected 2010 date. As our sister site travel blog Gadling noted the other day, that unfortunate mark has come to pass. What an unwinnable race.

The main culprit, of course, is China's economy and the masses of factories that produce tons of consumer goods for the rest of the world. Remember, each product on the store shelf - made in China or not - has a carbon footprint. One way to lighten that load is to buy less. Or drive less, as the increasing number of cars on the road in China might make one want to do.

That said, this is a complex issue. With China manufacturing prowess, it's clear there is a lot of green car potential in China. Here's a short list of recent posts we've had:

• Chinese academy develops big electric motors - 50,000 electric cars might come soon
• AFVI Show: Miles Automotive on the $30,000 Javlon XS500 all-electric sedan
• It's Official Chrysler and Chery deal signed in Beijing
• GM working on new small global four cylinders in Korea and China
• ZAP! vehicles on display at International Environmental Conference in China

[Source: Gadling]

We brought you the audio version of this interview yesterday, but if you didn't have time to listen to Miles Automotive's Chris Buehrer talk about the upcoming Javlon XS500, here's our talk written down (with the "ums" and all that edited out). Enjoy

ABG: You know we usually keep up with what Miles is up to, but somehow notice of a Javlon, either I just have forgotten about it or it missed me. What is more likely?

CB: It, it may have missed you. We're not really marketing heavily. Right now we're not, you know, we're not promoting the vehicle too much, but we want to have set up as a dealership network when the car is here.

ABG: Okay.

CB: So at the NADA, National Auto Dealer's Association, in Las Vegas in February, we brought this chassis over to show dealers and say, hey, this is what-this is what we're putting the other few guys. We want to show them that it's a good-looking car. It's not a small little boxy egg crate or something so we wanted to show them the, the styling of the vehicle and we wanted to advertise so that the numbers that we're shooting for, uh, uh, for performance values and then, uh, start signing on some dealership-a dealership network that believed in the car and believed in our mission and, uh, and, and that's the reason that you see the chasse here. We've really only, uh, had it at the NADA show and now here.

ABG: Okay. But, it's okay to put pictures up online of it, right?

CB: Yeah. Sure.



read it all after the jump

Remember the presentation that Miles Rubin gave at the EDTA last November on the semi-secretive car his company, Miles Automotive, would bring to the 2007 LA Auto Show? (If not, read about it here). It's time to update the story.

I certainly didn't expect to find any new alternative fueled vehicles while roaming through the AFVI Expo hall today. This isn't the type of show where new cars are announced. And, technically, the all-new Javlon XS500 I discovered at the Miles booth isn't exactly being announced. It's clear that Miles Automotive is doing a soft roll-out of their WhiteStar challenger: an all-electric, five-seat sedan with an 85 mph top speed and a 150+ mile range. Oh, and the base model starts at $29,500.

I cornered Chris Buehrer of Miles Automotive on the showroom floor. He was forthcoming on some points, less so on others (like who's making the XS500's 320 V, 25 kWh, 80 Ah lithium-ion batteries that take six hours to charge). You can probably tell from the interview that I was much more impressed to see the chassis in the metal - it's an original design by Pininfarina - than I was of Rubin's talk last November. For now, please give Chris a listen for many, many details on the Javlon (MP3). We'll have a transcript of this up shortly. (UPDATE: Here it is).



Related:

• EDTA Conference: Miles Automotive chairman previews 2007 LA Auto Show
• Want to become a Miles Automotive Dealer? You'll need to buy a 45-day supply of EVs