Will China be the new Electric Car mecca? It has to
Electric vehicles are striving to have a beneficial impact on the world's economy and are stirring interest from specialized and general media outlets. Forbes, for example, has just published an article on how China is going to become or, we should say, needs to become the mecca of the Electric Car.
There has been a lot of news regarding EVs and China: a nationwide network of recharging stations, an array of hybrid and electric models (some a little bit odd). According to the Forbes editor, moving to EVs is more a necessity than some sort of inspirational eco matter. China is expected to have 700 million cars on the roads by 2050. That's three times as more as the number of cars on U.S. roads now. Even with efficient powertrains, China would need 20 million barrels of oil per day to fuel its transportation sector, which in turn will emit about 3 billion metric tons of CO2 per year. This is unsustainable and unstable. A significant chunk of these vehicles need to use another type of energy - and electricity is what they have handy right now.
Some examples of companies working towards the future of EVs are MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which has interests in BYD; and Johnson Controls and Saft, who have teamed up to work on lithium-ion batteries. Even Exxon has a battery factory in South Korea.
[Source: Forbes]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
john 11:31PM (10/29/2008)
Valence has a manufacturing plant in China also
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GoodCheer 11:27AM (10/30/2008)
I just had to look back at my post history:
"What questions would you ask if you were going to see the Chevy Volt in D.C.?
Jul 23rd 2007 12:31PM
(...)
I would like to ask how scared they are of Chinese and Indian EV manufacturers. The price of oil is determined by international markets, and while Americans and Europeans can afford to stick to the status quo and build and buy gas cars, I expect development of cost effective EVs will define the forefront of the Chinese and Indian automotive industries. "
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Richard 4:57PM (10/30/2008)
That's great news, but if EV don't come with solar panels, on the roofs and hoods, to at least partially charge the cars up, China is going to spew a lot of coal emissions producing the extra electricity to power these cars. I know there's a lot "experts" out there that say the energy from PV is marginal, but I see it as anything helps. Plus, when more efficient PV are invented, they can easily retrofitted.
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Jose 8:33PM (10/30/2008)
The only way that China or any other country can go massively to EVs without overloading the atmosphere with pollutants (SO2, NOx - CO2 is not a pollutant) from coal burning power plants would be to build a large number nuclear power plants. Renewable energy sources are not up to the task into the distant future. The most efficient renewable energy source is PV and it does have a possible future 20-30 years down the road as it potentially can capture 20% of the energy reaching the Earth's surface. Wind turbines can capture only 2-4% of the sun's energy. Biofuels such as ethanol from corn are absolutely terrible, capturing only about 0.2% of the sun's energy reaching the Earth's surface and causing food prices to rocket skyward.
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Paul F. Dietz 4:23PM (10/31/2008)
It's probably more realistic to expect the Chinese to move to vehicles using coal-derived fuels. They can make methanol for less than $0.50/gallon. You expect them to use much more expensive electric options for the good of the rest of the world?
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