Every morning, as freezing winds blow across his construction site in northern China, Liu Jianhong gathers his workers for a cup of hot tea. Liu, whose business in Shaanxi province often operates beyond the reach of power grids, plugs a hairdryer-like charger into his hybrid electric vehicle, a crossover from Chinese automaker BYD Co. The other end of the charger connects to his kettle. A few minutes later, it lets out a whistle and tea time begins.
“With the help of the electric car, we can drink tea whenever and wherever we want. My workers are over the moon,” says Liu, 57, who used to schlep hot water in a too-small thermos from a nearby village each day, forcing his employees to take turns enjoying tea breaks. Liu’s EV has come to the rescue before, like when he needed to charge a power drill at a newly-built home he hadn’t realized wasn’t connected to a utility. “If it were not for my car, I would have wasted all the time and energy going there,” he says.
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