China makes evees for EU

An coal-powered electric scooter
makes only a little less smoke
than a diesel bus.

CHINA, long the trendsetter in commercial electric vehicles through BYD busses, has attracted a slew of new investments into electric models, thanks to the Chinese government’s more stick, less carrot approach.

China plans to reduce smog in its cities by setting aggressive emission and fuel economy standards for internal combustion engines by 2020 and driving sales of electric and plug in hybrids through subsidies. Chinese drivers of electric and hybrid passenger cars receive between 25 000 and 55 000 yuan (R51 500 to R113 000) per vehicle in subsidies from the central government, which plans to cut these subsidies with 20% in 2017-2018 and by 40%.

By rolling back the subsidies, the government wants to pressure automakers to reduce their currently high price for new energy vehicles, rather than relying on subsidies to profit, Yale Zhang, managing director of consultancy Automotive Foresight in Shanghai told Reuters.

Many more evees in China

At the Shangai Auto Show in April, Shanghai GM, a joint venture
between General Motors and SAIC Motor, said it would develop 10 “new energy models” by 2020.

Last week, two more important contracts signalled China’s lead on the West in making electric cars.

In the city of Chongqing, Korean battery maker LG Chem and China’s largest car builder, Changan Automobile Group, announced a partnership that will see the Koreans supply batteries for the Chinese car maker’s next-generation plug-in hybrid model, starting from 2016.

Changan Auto, founded in 1862, is China’s state-run auto maker which has its headquarters and R&D centre and is China’s largest car manufacturer, with sales of 40 trillion won ($33,8 billion) in 2014 and 80 000 employees.

LG Chem has co-operated with Changan Auto since 2009 to promote the development of electric car batteries. Changan Auto is also reviewing the idea of expanding the application of the batteries that it will use for the plug-in hybrid models toward the entire range of its lineups.

Chinese evees for Europe

In the city of Tianjin, Chinese automakers National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (Nevs) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation had in the same week signed a strategic co-operation agreement to jointly develop electrified cars.

Nevs, which bought bankrupt carmaker Saab in 2012, will help Dongfeng sell its own brand cars through the Nevs dealer network in Europe and the United States, and also meet European legal and technical requirements.

Dongfeng will support Nevs to mass produce electric vehicles production and expand Nevs’ sales and service with support from Dongfeng’s dealer network.

Nevs announced in June that it broke ground on a factory with a potential capacity of 200 000 cars as well as a research and development centre, with two Chinese partners pledging to invest 1,2 billion yuan ($187,68 million).

Dongfeng has formed several strategic long term partnerships with other international major car manufacturers including AB Volvo and as a 14% stake in the French conglomerate PSA.

Dongfeng Motor, with several JVs in China including Peugeot, Citroën, Renault, Nissan, Infinity, Honda and Kia, is one of the world’s largest automobile companies, with an annual output of over 3,83 million units in 2014 and 1,83 million in the first half of 2015.

This bus makes as much smoke as an electric passenger car.

Keeping the smog upstream

Not everyone thinks it is a good idea to promote electric vehicles in China.

The journal Environmental Science and Technology in March published a study by Chris Cherry, an electric vehicle analyst at the University of Tennessee, that shows each coal-fired electric power plant — the real “engine” of electric cars in China — on average emits 3,6 times more smog particles than the exhaust of a petrol-engined passenger car. This puts air pollution from an electric four-seater car on par with that of a diesel bus, which spreads across the number of passengers it carries, but still less than a diesel car.

The electric car’s pollution is, however, concentrated downwind from the power plant’s cooling towers, and not behind each vehicle’s exhaust, which is why ­Chinese corporates are prepared to meet both government’s aims and the market’s demand for cars that don’t pass gas on the street.

The author in University of KZN's solar car,
the only type of 'car' that is really green.

A leak in the hydrogen dream

In America, meanwhile, Toyota and Hyundai are still battling to stock fuel stations for the first few pioneers that bought hydrogen cars. Toyota is on record that it sees no progress that will extend the limited range of current batteries for at least a decade, which is why it is trying to replace the world’s current petroleum-based fuel stations with hydrogen stations — a slow and very, very expensive process for which drivers will eventually pay.

The main problem right now is not money, but containing hydrogen, the smallest molecule, which will leak through even polished steel.

Meanwhile, as BMW pointed out, every lamp post on every street offers a ready-made recharging point for current electric vehicles. Which is why China’s government seems to agree with Tesla’s Elon Musk that Toyota’s reason for pursuing hydrogen cars is bulls**t.