Air quality in Beijing is better than ever. In 2025, the city reported more than 340 days of ‘good’ or ‘moderate’ air quality, attributable to strict emission regulations and the growing number of electric vehicles in Chinese cities. Heavy pollution days dropped from dozens per year in the early 2010s to almost zero.
Over the past decade, Beijing has undergone a dramatic transformation in both its vehicle fleet and urban air quality. Once infamous for severe smog, the city now reports its cleanest air on record—an improvement closely linked to strict environmental regulations and the rapid rise of new energy vehicles (NEVs).
Olympic games
In 2008, Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, introducing the world to the Chinese city and its gray skies. Images of the polluted city and its smog were used outside China to criticize the country, but they also served as a wake-up call for the city and the country.
Beijing went to great lengths to clean up the skies, with emergency measures like shutting down factories and coal plants and restricting drivers during the lead-up to the games. The emergency measures helped, but these were obviously not a long-term solution.
Beijing’s air pollution continued to worsen for several years after the games, as China continued to industrialize, grow, and urbanize. Still, since peaking in 2013, the city has experienced a sharp decline in pollution.
PM2.5
This week, Beijing reported an average PM2.5 concentration of 27 µg/m³ in 2025, down from an average of over 100 in 2013. PM2.5 is the smallest particulate matter and is particularly harmful to the lungs.
The change results from government policy aimed on reducing smog, including restrictions on heavy industry. However, a substantial portion of it is attributable to the rise of electric vehicles in China. The Chinese EV industry has seen a drastic increase in sales in recent years.
In 2020, only 5% of new cars sold in China were plug-in, and by 2025, that number had risen to over 50%. The transformation has been evident in Chinese cities, with noise and pollution declining rapidly as more cars become electric.
New energy vehicles
NEVs have roughly tripled in absolute numbers within five years. As a share of Beijing’s total vehicle fleet, NEVs grew from about 6% in 2020 to 9% in 2022 and to nearly 15% by 2025. Correspondingly, ICE vehicles declined in relative share, even though their absolute numbers fell only slowly.
NEVs have played an essential role in improving Beijing’s air quality by reducing tailpipe emissions, a significant source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in dense cities.
Beijing’s cleaner air is not a single-technology success story, but NEVs are now a central pillar of the city’s pollution-control strategy. By 2030, Beijing is likely to be a city where electric vehicles are commonplace and where the most severe forms of traffic-related air pollution have largely been mitigated.
