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China Joins the Growing Movement To Ban Gasoline, Diesel Cars (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: China has become the latest country to publicly discuss plans to ban the production and sale of gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. In July, both France and the UK published plans to phase out sales of conventionally powered vehicles by 2040. China will now add another nail to the coffin of the internal combustion engine. However, unlike the French or British plans, in this case there's no target date -- yet. The news comes from an automotive policy forum in Tianjin. China's vice minister of industry and information technology, Xin Guobin, said that his ministry has begun work on a timetable to phase out fossil fueled vehicles. The Xinhua news agency also reports that Xin told automakers they need to begin to "readjust their strategies" accordingly. For foreign car companies hoping to sell EVs in China, that will mean investing in the country, as imported vehicles come with stiff import duties attached.
The US is currently more or less self dependent for Oil, having larger reserves than most of the ME countries ... combined. We don't control the world like people think, OPEC does.
And it makes sense to cut resources you have to import (in China's and Europe's case) and not give money to people who want to blow you up for being an Infidel.I honestly wish them well.
The US will get there, when it is economically reasonable to do so. But unlike China, and some of the European countries, we do not have a centrally planned economy.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
That's a nice, far-away target date that lets people feel good about themselves without actually having to do anything. Plus there's plenty of time to extend the deadline when it eventually approaches (or just quietly ignore it at that point, given there are likely no enforceable deadlines or penalties associated with the plan).
#DeleteChrome
The Saudis seem to have seen the writing on the wall, hence their recent moves (under their younger princes) to diversify their economy. More education, research, and (gasp) the levying of taxes.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Hey. In 20-30 years electric vehicles will make gasoline vehicles obsolete. No one in the US, or anyplace else, will be buying ICE cars if electric is cheaper and better. This is a feel good law. It makes the fools feel like governments are "doing something."
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Yep. Also note if the trends don't bear out, they will extend the life of IC engines as long as they need to.
Meaningless propaganda.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
In the Earth's crust there is about 65 thousand tons of lithium per person now living. That seems like enough to me.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Fortunately if electric makes serious inroads on ICE engines I should be able to get gas for 1$ a gallon and extend the usefulness of my current car another couple of decades.
love is just extroverted narcissism
What if they get it wrong? I mean if electric vehicles are the future then just let it happen, no need to force it along with bans and subsidies.
We saw this with the CFL bulb subsidies. The government would give large rebates for people to buy CFL lighting but the bulbs are crap. They take 20 minutes to "warm up", interfere with IR remotes (that nearly drove me batty until I figured out that the lamp was what kept the TV remote from working), can't handle the heat of being in a closed fixture (who lights their house entirely with floor lamps and chandeliers?), and contain toxic mercury (broken bulbs happen, and in places like where our children sleep and where we prepare their food). Not long after LED lights came out and they are awesome. They light up immediately, don't interfere with remote controls, and don't burn themselves out if in a common light fixture. They aren't perfect, for example they still have a "funny" color to them, but they are getting better. Does anyone even buy CFLs anymore now that LEDs are just as cheap?
If not electric vehicles then what? I don't know, but as I recall few people saw LEDs coming to market as quickly as they did. What if the claims of algae based diesel fuel becomes a reality? Are we still going to ban internal combustion engines? Maybe ethanol gets real cheap because we found a new way to make it. Maybe we get synthesized hydrocarbons from wind and wave powered factories.
As inefficient as an internal combustion engine might be that inefficiency becomes largely irrelevant if the means to produce, store, and transport the fuels becomes "green", cheap, and plentiful. If algal fuels become viable then we aren't using electricity to produce it, it comes from the sun. If we can convert sun power to motive power by algae more efficiently than through photovoltaic panels and batteries then banning internal combustion engines is a problem.
Let's not repeat past mistakes.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
...and the United States is ruled by attorneys whose sole purpose in this world is to pollute it with paper.
From: http://www.ranken-energy.com/p...
I remember seeing some CFL bulbs on the shelf that advertise "reduced mercury content". Hmm, so you're saying they still contain mercury? Isn't mercury bad for you? Even in "reduced" amounts? No thanks.
I'll use the CFL bulbs I have until they burn out because that's a sunk cost but I won't buy more. This is especially true now that I've seen the real life lifespan of these bulbs, I have incandescent bulbs that lasted many times longer.
Also, wouldn't be just as "green" if we used LED (or even incandescent) lights powered from wind or solar?
Dear Senator,
Fix the problem at the source, don't mandate that I buy a lower quality bulb. Let people build some nuclear power plants already. Don't mandate nuclear power. Don't subsidize it. Just let people do it.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
Arizona is just as big as the Arabian peninsula
You should learn to read a map. AP is more than 10 times the size of Arizona.
I mean if electric vehicles are the future then just let it happen, no need to force it along with bans and subsidies.
So your argument is that subsidies don't work, despite every major boost in human progress being funded in someway by subsidies?
Funny how one extreme use case is held up as an excuse for not changing things. Using the "200 miles" as a distance limit is telling, as it assumes that the technology will not improve at all, when it has already improved a great deal in the last decade.Charging technology is also improving greatly, it's ridiculous to assume that there won't be sufficient charging capacity installed as the number of electrics on the road increases.
Consider this - auto driving cars would be able to convoy to reduce energy usage, and smoother traffic flow from auto-driving vehicles would reduce slowdowns and jams. That alone will greatly improve evacuation efficiency. This technology is rapidly approaching market, any electric car produced in 10 years should be capable of this functionality.
So, instead of 10 hours on the road to go 200 miles, we have the scenario of 4 hours on the road, followed by an hour to charge, and then back on the road to go another 200 miles before the old-style cars would have made it to the first stop. (Though realistically we should see 300-400 miles between charges)
More gas for the USA!
Trumps's plan is working, America will be back in the 1950's again before we know it!
No sig today...