BIGGER IS BETTER: Gas Guzzlers Rule in China.

Official targets call for 40% of cars bought in China in 2030 to be pure electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. The country already is the world’s largest electric-vehicle market. Roughly half the 700,000 electric cars sold world-wide last year were sold in China.

In all, China will have 30 million electric cars on the road, 9% of the country’s total passenger-car fleet, by 2025, Bernstein Research forecasts. While that’s likely to eclipse the number of electric cars operating in any other country, China’s appetite for electric cars still looks modest alongside the craze for SUVs.

From four million SUVs in 2010, China will have 150 million—45% of its entire passenger-car fleet—by 2025, Bernstein estimates. The sedan has long been king in China, but SUVs will start outselling sedans next year, says Bernstein auto analyst Robin Zhu, and by 2023 SUVs will outnumber sedans nationwide.

SUVs are so popular that one of China’s biggest auto firms, Great Wall Motors Co., makes nothing else.

Even in China, consumers foil central planners’ demands.