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> Until this is fixed, the environmental benefits of EVs there will be limited. That's largely untrue. In urban Chinese cities, the tailpipe exhaust is one of
by devy 9y ago
> Until this is fixed, the environmental benefits of EVs there will be limited.
That's largely untrue. In urban Chinese cities, the tailpipe exhaust is one of the biggest cause of the smog and air pollution. The anecdotal evidence is that I was raise in a small city that has virtually no major factories yet still have been suffered from air pollution and smog. While small factories were forced to be closed (due to environmental regulations in recent years) the number of the motor vehicles (cars, trucks and motorcycles) on the road has raised 10x. As a result, air pollution has been getting worse.
It's unrealistic to expect 100% of the power in the grid coming from green energy sources, let alone the idea of waiting till then to pushing EV adoption. Green energy transition should be gradual, one step at the time.
- JPKab 9y agoAgreed. Even if 100% of the electricity was produced by coal, anytime you reduce the sources of pollution from millions of tailpipes to a few thousand power plants, you can easily regulate and install scrubbers to reduce the pollutants.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoUnfortunately, many power plants in china ignore environmental regulations and don't install scrubbers (or have them but don't turn them on when officials aren't looking). China's pollution problem is primarily one of governance and rule of law.
- xster 9y agoA power plant that don't have a scrubber is likely still less polluting that 10000 power plants that have to weigh 150kg and that have an equally low likelihood of having any environmentally friendly implements.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoActually, auto exhausts in first tier cities that implement stricter emissions standards and disallow selling low quality gasoline are not that bad. The problem are the blue trucks that come in from the provinces at night that don't have good emissions equipment and are running on crappy gas. You could actually see the air quality get WORSE in Beijing after 11 pm, when few personal cars are on the road but the Hebei trucks start coming in.
- njarboe 9y agoMaybe, but in the US it ended up being quicker to get 95% of cars with catalytic converters then to get scrubbers on 95% of the coal plants. It seems power plant owners have more power to push against regulation than car owners.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Subetai 9y agoOn another hand that point is only true if other issues of overurbanization and lack of supportive infra in cities exist. And nobody buys an unsubsidized electric car in China. Create problems so one can create a solution.. I suppose everyone has a mortgage. And then would have to look at how these cars and batteries are made with such thin margins.. it gets dark at that point