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Automakers Are Asking China To Slow Down Electric Car Quotas (electrek.co)

New submitter Kant shares a report from Electrek: The auto industry is once again attempting to slow down the rollout of electric vehicles. Virtually all automakers, except for Tesla of course, have sent a letter to the Chinese government in an attempt to have them drastically weaken their zero-emission vehicle mandate. As we previously reported, China, the world's biggest car market, has somewhat of an aggressive ZEV mandate that would force automakers to have zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) represent 8% of new car sales as soon as 2018 and quickly ramp up to 12% by 2020. Now Germany's WirtschaftsWoche magazine (via Auto News) reports that the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), which represents Chrysler/Fiat, Ford, and GM, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), which represents all major European automakers, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) and the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA), have all sent a joint letter to China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology to ask for several significant changes to the mandate.

The "six recommended modifications" include slowing the rollout of the mandate by 1 to 3 years, reconsidering the penalty system if they don't meet the quota, having credits not only for all-electric cars but also plug-in hybrid cars, and basically making the whole mandate weaker so that they don't have to produce as many electric cars.

4 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Good by Bandraginus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think that China is holding all the aces here, right? Doesn't hurt China if the world's car manufacturers pull out (less competition in the market for their domestic manufacturers).

    Seems to me like something the US should have done a long time ago.

  2. Re:Ultimately it could be good for all of us by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How would that *possibly* be good? The world has been groaning under American domination for decades. It's about time someone else got a chance. The whole world despises America, have you seen the latest Pew poll? The only people in the world who like America are a few right-wingers who live in America.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  3. Re: Why am I not surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1) Learn the difference between energy and power.

    2) A gas-powered car is not just a few dozen liters of gasoline. The gasoline is a trivial fraction of its mass. Acting like the only thing that matters in a vehicle comparison is the weight of the energy source (gasoline vs. batteries) is absurd. Other parts of an ICE vehicle, such as the drivetrain, take up much more of the mass and are much heavier than their ev equivalents.

    So great, gasoline has 50 times the energy density as good li-ions, equating to around 10-15x difference after taking into account efficiency. So that means that the gasoline car goes 10-15x further, right? Of course it doesn't, because cars are not just "gasoline" or "batteries", it's a fraction of their total weight.

    What's the actual range difference? Comparing seating and 0-60 times, the Model 3 is a rough equivalent of the Ford Mustang (depending on the model of each). The baseline Model 3 does 0-60 in 5,6 sec like the newer Ecoboost Mustangs, while the 75kwh version will be faster.. They're also roughly the same on price. Now, with a 16 gallon tank and 21-28mpg highway, that's 336 to 448 miles range. The 60kwh model 3 has a highway range of 215mi (plus a small emergency reserve), while the 75kwh would scale linearly to 269mi (although screenshots of a charging model 3 suggest even more, potentially approaching 300mi. Basically, the EVs do about 2/3rds the range, maybe a bit less on average.

    Now, one can cherry pick data to try and bias the comparison - say, a large tank gas car with a thrifty, powerless engine vs. a leaf. I could likewise bias the comparuson in reverse - say a 100kwh model S vs. a track car. But with a fair comparison between mass-market vehicles in the same performance/size/price range, that's what you come up with.

    At an *average* speed of 65mph, 215 miles is 3,3 hours; 269 is 4.1 hours; and 300 would be 4.6 hours of driving. Given that you're *supposed* to be stopping that frequently anyways, and there's already a supercharger network on almost every major interstate in the US...

    Meanwhile, in your everyday life, and unlike a gas car, your range is... infinite. Seriously, its common for ev owners to not even know their actual range, because every day when they leave their garage, it's full. You don't even need to think about it. No having to "stop to fuel up on the way home from work" 15-40 times per year regardless of the weather, and breaking down on the road if you forget to check. Since EV ranges significantly increase in city driving (at a steady 20mph the range can be tripled or more vs. highway driving - stop and start reduces it but not nearly enough to overcome the speed advantage), a typical US commuter can miss *weeks* of charging without issue.

  4. 30% efficient IC car, or 60% efficient power plant by robbak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's the full story. Petrol engines are really inefficient, and can't save more energy by doing things like regenerative braking. Even if your electric car is powered by 100% fossil fuel plants, you are way ahead because the power stations are much more efficient. And you can do more flue gas cleaning at a large power station than you can do on a million car's exhaust pipes. And then, with every extra bit of renewable power that hits the grids, your EV becomes even cleaner.

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    Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp