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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    China Hastens the World Toward an Electric-Car Future

    SHENZHEN, China--There is a powerful reason that automakers worldwide are speeding up their efforts to develop electric vehicles--and that reason is China.


    Propelled by vast amounts of government money and visions of dominating next-generation technologies, China has become the world’s biggest supporter of electric cars. That is forcing automakers from Detroit to Yokohama and Seoul to Stuttgart to pick up the pace of transformation or risk being left behind in the world’s largest car market.


    Beijing has already called for one out of every five cars sold in China to run on alternative fuel by 2025. Last month, China issued new rules that would require the world’s carmakers to sell more alternative-energy cars here if they wanted to continue selling regular ones. A Chinese official recently said the country would eventually do away with the internal combustion engine in new cars.


    “We are seeing ourselves at a crossroads in the development of the automobile industry in this country, with a global scale in mind,” said Juergen Stackmann, Volkswagen’s top executive for VW brand sales and marketing, during a visit to Shanghai.


    China has reshaped industries before--clothing, steelmaking, even lace--through a potent mix of government support and cheap labor. More recently it has transformed green-energy businesses like solar and wind power.


    This, however, would be on a different scale.


    If China succeeds--and there is no guarantee--Beijing’s policymakers will be front and center reimagining the global auto industry, a business that has helped define communities, industries and people’s aspirations for more than a century. It is a role that was almost inconceivable just a few decades ago, when China was more closely associated with a different type of green transportation: the black, classic Flying Pigeon bicycle.


    China feels it has little choice in pressing forward. While it is true that electric vehicles fit neatly into China’s plan to become the world leader in sci-fi technology like artificial intelligence, the country also fears a dark future--one where its cities remain cloaked in smog and it is beholden to foreign countries to sell it the oil it needs.


    Already, China is the world’s largest maker and seller of electric cars. Chinese buyers are on track to snap up almost 300,000 of them this year, three times the number expected to be sold in the U.S. and more than the rest of the world combined.


    The country’s market heft is considerable. China buys more General Motors-branded cars than Americans do. Even for Tesla, the still-small American maker of luxury electric sedans, China has become the second-largest market, even though China’s taxes on imported cars are 10 times as high as those in the United States. Tesla officials have said they are considering opening a factory in China.


    A week ago, GM and Ford unveiled plans to add a combined 33 electric models to their lineups. Global manufacturers like GM and Volkswagen are also moving much of their research, development and production of electric cars to China. China in turn is pressuring them to share that technology with their Chinese partners.


    Behind the scenes, China is recruiting some of the world’s best electrical engineering talent, even in the United States. China is also home to many smaller companies that make the parts essential to assembling electric cars. All this comes just as electric cars are finally starting to become competitive with gasoline- or diesel-powered cars on performance and cost.


    Electric cars are an increasingly common sight in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. For some drivers here, electric cars are all they know.


    “I don’t plan to buy a gasoline car, since I heard they are going to be banned for sale,” said Xiong Jianghuai, a lawyer based in Shanghai, who has bought two made by Chery, a Chinese automaker. He said he was delighted that the operating cost was less than one-fifth of the cost of buying gasoline, even if the initial purchase price was a little higher.


    “I think the future lies in electric cars,” Xiong said.


    Many outside China--including some members of President Donald Trump’s administration--say China is using unfair government support to create national champions that could eclipse their rivals abroad.


    Chinese auto executives say their country is pursuing common-sense policies to develop cutting-edge industries.


    “In China, the entrepreneurs in the industrial sector are very lucky, because we have the foundation” from the government, said Li Bin, the founder and chairman of the NIO Co., a Chinese electric car manufacturer. “These opportunities are rare or impossible in any other country in the world.”


    China’s ability to dominate electric cars is not ensured. China’s auto manufacturing skills are considerable, but it has yet to create a single car model that has become popular abroad.


    Even in China, most car buyers still prefer Fords, Chevrolets and Volkswagens largely made by government-mandated joint ventures between global and Chinese companies. When it comes to electric cars, most Chinese models are inexpensive and boxy, unlike the sleek lines and looming falcon-wing doors of Tesla’s latest models.


    Chinese officials have long called for electric cars to be practical, and not just luxuries.


    “The central government has made a lot of strategies for the development of new energy vehicles,” said Song Qiuling, a deputy director at China’s Finance Ministry. “That is why we have seen the progress and development of new energy vehicles.”


    Some players have already stumbled. Faraday Future, an electric car company based in the U.S. but owned by a Chinese company, scaled back after its parent hit hard financial times. China yanked electric-car subsidies away from a number of local companies after an investigation last year showed that many were overstating sales.


    The environmental benefits may be tough to realize any time soon. Nearly three-quarters of China’s power comes from coal, which emits more climate-changing gases than oil. Even on electricity, China’s cars are still burning dirty.


    China is also favoring battery electric technology that it can call its own. Foreign automakers already control much of the advanced technology behind fuel-sipping alternatives such as plug-in hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, which runs on both gasoline power and an electric battery.


    Electric cars make particular sense in China. China’s dense and crowded cities often mean shorter driving distances, while its extensive high-speed rail system reduces the need for long-distance road trips.


    Han Tao discovered the limits of electric cars the hard way. A 35-year-old stock investor in Beijing, he said he ran out of charge in July while driving to Shenzhen, 1,300 miles away. His Chinese-made BYD E6 electric sedan needed a tow.


    Still, he said, he and his wife prefer the E6 over the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Cruze they bought four years earlier.


    “It doesn’t have the oily smell and the noise from the engine,” Han said. “It accelerates way faster than gasoline cars. It feels like you are on a high-speed train.”


    China’s push for electric cars shows how its industrial ambitions can endure big political shifts. China named a former Audi engineer, Wan Gang, its minister of science and technology in 2007, and he has kept the position and maintained the push despite the emergence of a new slate of Chinese leaders.


    Wen Jiabao, China’s second-most-powerful official as premier from 2002-12, was an avid supporter of electric cars who came from Tianjin, the center of China’s battery industry. Wen’s successor as premier, Li Keqiang, has also turned government backing for high-tech industries into his signature accomplishment, while President Xi Jinping has strongly endorsed the effort.


    “The development of new energy vehicles,” said Xu Chaoqian, a top aide to Wan, “has received a lot of support from President Xi, Premier Li and others.”


    China Hastens the World Toward an Electric-Car Future?The Asahi Shimbun

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    SHENZHEN, China--There is a powerful reason that automakers worldwide are speeding up their
    efforts to develop electric vehicles--and that reason is China.

    Beijing has already called for one out of every five cars sold in China to run on alternative fuel by 2025. Last month, China
    issued new rules that would require the world’s carmakers to sell more alternative-energy cars here if they wanted to continue selling regular ones.
    A Chinese official recently said the country would eventually do away with the internal combustion engine in new cars.
    FTFY

    Beijing has already called for one out of every five cars sold in China to run on alternative fuel by 2025 so that China can
    copy the technology and mass produce the alternative energy cars at a cheaper price and export them back to the countries who developed the technology.
    Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago ...


  3. #3
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    It’s a smart strategy for the home market. Apply increasing pressure on manufacturers to produce ever cleaner vehicles.
    Eventually they will use renewables to replace coal for power supplies. Cheap labour won’t last forever.

  4. #4
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Clever and developed Chinese.
    To be expected.

  5. #5
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    It’s a smart strategy for the home market
    Certainly in the near term and in long term will advance China's technology in the electric car sector.
    Expect they will be a leader in this sector and other energy sectors within a few years.
    45 (Trump) pulling out of the Paris Agreement will only ensure China will take the lead all renewable energy sectors.
    Smart people with heavy government funding will make it so.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,"

  6. #6
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    aging one's Avatar
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    And then there is Tesla going it alone from their factory in Fremont Ca. I expect in 4 years time I will be using one in the states. Willing to bet that one of my kids will get the Tesla model 3 as a first car. That would be too cool even for an old petrol head like me.

  7. #7
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by aging one View Post
    And then there is Tesla going it alone from their factory in Fremont Ca. I expect in 4 years time I will be using one in the states. Willing to bet that one of my kids will get the Tesla model 3 as a first car. That would be too cool even for an old petrol head like me.
    Wouldn't be holding my breath as to the expectations of development in the states, AO.
    Wishful fantasy.

  8. #8
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by aging one View Post
    Tesla going it alone from their factory in Fremont Ca
    For now and they should do well in CA but China beckons.

    Tesla Close to Agreement on Opening Its First Factory in China

    Tesla is close to an agreement to produce its electric cars in China for the first time and gain better access to the world’s largest auto market, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

    An agreement with the city of Shanghai would allow Tesla to build its facilities in Lingang development zone and could come as soon as this week, the report said.

    The electric carmaker, whose revenue from China tripled to more than $1 billion last year, would need to set up a joint venture with at least one local partner under existing rules, Bloomberg reported.

    Tesla Close to Agreement on Its First Factory in China

  9. #9
    Member

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    Quote Originally Posted by David48atTD View Post
    so that China can
    copy the technology and mass produce the alternative energy cars at a cheaper price and export them back to the countries who developed the technology.
    Lol,

    You ever been to China?

    Ten years ago they had cities that were mostly EV only.

    China was way ahead of the west in embracing and developing EV technology.

  10. #10
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Behind the scenes, China is recruiting some of the world’s best electrical engineering talent,.......
    Wonder if any are Germans?


    Mission E: https://www.porsche.com/measure/abou...iew/article01/

    · With a combined output of more than 600 hp (440 kW), they catapult the Mission E to 60 miles per hour in less than 3.5 seconds, and to 124 miles per hour in less than 12 seconds.
    · The size of the lithium-ion battery enables the car to drive more than 300 miles on a single charge. It needs only 15 minutes to recharge for another 250 miles of range.
    · With a coil installed in the garage floor, all the car has to do is park over it for power to be transferred wirelessly to the coil’s counterpart in the underbody.

    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

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