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- the license plate thing as far as I know is only in Beijing where they're really desperate to do anything - The cars in general are pretty new (people are he

- the license plate thing as far as I know is only in Beijing where they're really desperate to do anything - The cars in general are pretty new (people are heavily in debt to finance their cars and iPhones). In the big cities you never see the typical eastern european thing where someone put their foot down on the gas and a plum of exhaust comes out. Every car seems to run clean. Taxis are old, but they run on natural gas. - All scooters are electrics. This is actually amazing to see for the first time b/c you never hear about it in the west. But 99% of the scooters are electric and silent. It's amazing. And we're talking about like half the traffic is on scooters. So this is big!. Funny enough I wouldn't even know where to buy one in the west. - the reality is that the pollution is almost entirely from the factories and powerplants. It really looks different from what you see from cars. It's like a haze.. sorta like fog, but more gray. But it's very uniform and everywhere. Electric power is very very cheap in China. They're scared of the price ever going up b/c it's take a toll on manufacturing.

kbenson 10y ago
> It really looks different from what you see from cars. It's like a haze.. sorta like fog, but more gray. But it's very uniform and everywhere. Cars can cause it too. Long time Los Angeles residents can attest to that. The fuel efficiency and smog requirements in recent decades have made it much less likely though[1]. 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=la+smog&tbm=isch#tbm=isch&q=la+smog+now+and+then https://www.google.com/search?q=la+smog&tbm=isch#tbm=isch&q=...
- optforfon 10y ago
  Ah, the LA smog always looked a disgusting yellow to me. But I've only see in the past 10 years
  - kbenson 10y ago
    You missed something really (horrendously) special then. It was much worse 25-30 years ago. I grew up in Northern California, but have relatives that live in LA, so we visited regularly.
xoa 10y ago
>- the license plate thing as far as I know is only in Beijing where they're really desperate to do anything Beijing has a population of over 21 million, and also a major concentration of the kinds of demographics that Tesla currently targets best. And I've seen similar measures at least discussed in other cities, because the problem truly is desperate and it's not getting any better. I don't think that odd/even exactly is going to be implemented in general, if only because it can be economically self-defeating, enforcement is very hard, etc., but there seem to be good odds that politicians will seek ways to internalize the costs of anything that contributes to air pollution. And politics being politics, it also would not be surprising if inordinate (and inefficient) pressure falls on things that are very visible to the common citizen and have less backing from entrenched interests, even if a bigger problem comes from something farther away. Vehicles are a clear target, particularly once it's no longer a zero-sum as more and more practical alternatives start to exist. Again, only talking politics here not whether it's necessarily the best place for governments to focus on because governments have a regrettable history of not simply doing the most rational thing. Politics can work the other way too of course (China would still prefer to be making everything internally and gaining access/control of all IP rather then importing), but I can see why Tesla might consider this an area that could be a significant central plank and competitive advantage for them in the near term vs traditional car makers.
derekp7 10y ago
> I wouldn't even know where to buy [an electric scooter] in the west. I just ordered the parts to convert a bicycle to electric / electric assist. This is essentially a replacement wheel (either front or back) with a hub motor built in; plus motor controller and battery pack. They work great on mountain bike frames, but in my case I'm adding a light weight geared motor to a road bike. Prices are from about $400 to $1000 depending on what kit you get, plus $300 - $700 for a battery (again depending on capacity) -- a $700 battery gets you about 50 miles range or so if you keep it under 20mph. Check out the wiki on reddit.com/r/ebikes for a list of vendors of parts.

kbenson 10y ago

> It really looks different from what you see from cars. It's like a haze.. sorta like fog, but more gray. But it's very uniform and everywhere. Cars can cause it too. Long time Los Angeles residents can attest to that. The fuel efficiency and smog requirements in recent decades have made it much less likely though[1]. 1: https://www.google.com/search?q=la+smog&tbm=isch#tbm=isch&q=la+smog+now+and+then https://www.google.com/search?q=la+smog&tbm=isch#tbm=isch&q=...

optforfon 10y ago
Ah, the LA smog always looked a disgusting yellow to me. But I've only see in the past 10 years
- kbenson 10y ago
  You missed something really (horrendously) special then. It was much worse 25-30 years ago. I grew up in Northern California, but have relatives that live in LA, so we visited regularly.

xoa 10y ago

>- the license plate thing as far as I know is only in Beijing where they're really desperate to do anything Beijing has a population of over 21 million, and also a major concentration of the kinds of demographics that Tesla currently targets best. And I've seen similar measures at least discussed in other cities, because the problem truly is desperate and it's not getting any better. I don't think that odd/even exactly is going to be implemented in general, if only because it can be economically self-defeating, enforcement is very hard, etc., but there seem to be good odds that politicians will seek ways to internalize the costs of anything that contributes to air pollution. And politics being politics, it also would not be surprising if inordinate (and inefficient) pressure falls on things that are very visible to the common citizen and have less backing from entrenched interests, even if a bigger problem comes from something farther away. Vehicles are a clear target, particularly once it's no longer a zero-sum as more and more practical alternatives start to exist. Again, only talking politics here not whether it's necessarily the best place for governments to focus on because governments have a regrettable history of not simply doing the most rational thing. Politics can work the other way too of course (China would still prefer to be making everything internally and gaining access/control of all IP rather then importing), but I can see why Tesla might consider this an area that could be a significant central plank and competitive advantage for them in the near term vs traditional car makers.

derekp7 10y ago

> I wouldn't even know where to buy [an electric scooter] in the west. I just ordered the parts to convert a bicycle to electric / electric assist. This is essentially a replacement wheel (either front or back) with a hub motor built in; plus motor controller and battery pack. They work great on mountain bike frames, but in my case I'm adding a light weight geared motor to a road bike. Prices are from about $400 to $1000 depending on what kit you get, plus $300 - $700 for a battery (again depending on capacity) -- a $700 battery gets you about 50 miles range or so if you keep it under 20mph. Check out the wiki on reddit.com/r/ebikes for a list of vendors of parts.