LOADED down with goods and livestock, China’s home-grown three-wheeled vehicles are a common sight chugging along rural roads. These so-called “Chinese rural vehicles” (CRVs) are often held up as a triumph of appropriate technology. But now it turns out they have a dirty secret. A new survey reveals that they present a worrying environmental problem because of the amount of fuel they consume and the copious emissions they produce. The CRVs are so profligate that they are largely responsible for driving China’s modern thirst for oil.
The rise of private motoring is often blamed for China’s growing petroleum habit. “All…
