The coronavirus has killed more than 1,000 people with a devastating international economic impact. After closing factories, Xpeng Motors, NIO, and eHang have resumed work on Monday. We asked Xpeng Motors to tell us what they are doing to ensure the health and safety of their staff and customers.
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Phase One of the new US-China trade deal was signed last week, and its unconventional approach is likely to lead to a nice jolt for Tesla Model X and S sales from California to China.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday released its 15-year EV plan. The “draft development” plan sets a target for EVs to account for 25% of annual new light-vehicle sales by 2025 — with no targets specified beyond that year. That’s up from the 20% goal it set two years ago. But Beijing plans to continue phasing out consumer incentives. Instead, it will create EV quotas for carmakers to meet.
A new study published in Nature Sustainability finds that China’s fleet of electric vehicles could save lives. In other words, “Fleet electrification in China could have more health benefits than net climate benefits in the next decade, which should be realized by policymakers to develop cost-effective strategies for EV development.”
The Chinese government is currently phasing out most of its electric vehicle incentives, but it is still trying to boost sales of EVs by not allowing cities to impose license plate quotas on electric vehicles.
China has announced its plans to reduce subsidies for electric cars sold in the country, as has been expected for some time.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, the Chinese company Longi Solar had its record-breaking 60-cell bifacial shingling module certified by the China General Certification Center. Representatives of the European solar industry want the EU to end import duties on Chinese panels. China’s energy regulator want wind farms to get a better access to the electrical grid to curb power waste.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, U.S. oceans are about to get a little more crowded by wind turbines. China and India are the main players behind the massive expansion of solar power production. Scientists publish a new study that rebukes a previous one that claimed that powering a country only with renewable energy is impossible.
I know that Electrek readers are tired of concept electric vehicles that have little chances of ever getting to production, but I thought this one was too stunning not to share.
Buick unveiled a beautiful new all-electric SUV concept with “up to 370 miles” of range. Sure, why not 1 million miles as long as we’re talking about concepts…
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China’s generous electric vehicle incentives enabled the world’s biggest auto market to quickly also become the world’s largest EV market.
There have been rumors that they could slash those incentives, but the government instead decided to update them in order to favor longer range cars.
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With the relative success of its Chevy Bolt EV and the hunger for EVs in China, GM is one of the few big automakers actually trying to build a business around electric vehicles. CEO Mary Barra has committed separately to 5 crossovers, 2 minivans, 7 SUVs and 10 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade in China. But with the Bolt EV reportedly losing up to $9000 per vehicle initially, how does the company get to real profitability with these vehicles?
China likes its trains and it has deployed some of the most advanced and the most out-of-the-box train technologies in the world.
Now its latest train is so out-of-the-box that it could just as easily not be considered an actual train.
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China is often giving us glimpses of the future of the auto industry in the rest of the world – thanks to its aggressive zero-emission vehicle mandate which attracts EV production investments.
The latest example is BMW’s launch of a new battery factory in the country – pictured above.
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China is leading the world in solar power installations by a long run. ASECEA is predicting that 50GW of solar power is well within reach of being installed this year. In June and July of 2017, China installed 25GW of solar power – and they’ll push the globe past 100GW total for the year.
At China’s ‘State of the Union address’ equivalent, just yesterday, president Xi Jinping said, “Any harm we inflict on nature will eventually return to haunt us… this is a reality we have to face.”
As we previously reported, virtually all automakers (except for Tesla) have asked China to slow down their electric car mandate.
Today, the Chinese government announced that they are delaying the implementation of the mandate by a year, but it’s not to say that the auto industry lobbying had its way entirely.
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GM has been quiet about its plans for electric vehicles after the Bolt EV, which came out almost a year ago. They hinted at new EVs built of the Bolt’s platform and they claim to be serious about the electrification of their vehicle lineup, but not much has come of it so far.
It’s another matter in China where GM is now committing to 10 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
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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.
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[Editor’s note: We’re trying a new morning green energy briefing which should deliver every day at 9am ET. Please comment below]
Americans strongly believe in their responsibilities toward climate change and pollution – Two-thirds of registered voters (66%) say the U.S. should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do. Nearly eight out of ten registered voters (78%) support taxing global warming pollution, regulating it, or using both approaches, while only one in ten opposes these approaches. Two in three registered voters (66%) support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and using the money to reduce other taxes (such as income tax) by an equal amount. If Congress passes a fossil fuel tax, the most popular uses of the revenue are developing clean energy (solar, wind), improving America’s infrastructure, assisting workers in the coal industry who may lose their jobs as a result of the tax, and paying down the national debt.
As we often report, several countries are pushing some impressive goals to transition their car fleet to electric. Now China is feeling the pressure to act because of its growing air pollution problem and the country looks likely to turn to a ZEV mandate to achieve its own goals for the transition to electric transport.
The latest draft of the proposed legislation is pushing for a relatively aggressive mandate that is already causing some panic amongst automakers heavily investing in the country now that it has become the biggest car market in the world.
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Yesterday, Tesla inaugurated its 100th Supercharger in China located at its ‘Tesla experience center’ in the business district in Beijing, and for the occasion, the automaker announced the official launch of ‘Tesla Public Charging Partner Program’ in the country.
Under the program, Tesla is inviting hotel groups, commercial real estate companies, industrial parks, office buildings, banks, resorts, and other businesses across the country to participate in Tesla’s Supercharger and Destination Charger networks.
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Just a week ago, we reported that the first shipment of Model X’s has cleared customs and that the company’s stores and service centers, also sometimes referred to as “experience centers” in China, are receiving the all-electric SUV.
Now we learn that Tesla hosted a special delivery event for the first 6 Model X owners in China.
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There’s no doubt that Tesla likes big factories. Its Fremont Factory is one of the biggest buildings on earth with 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space – pictured above. The Gigafactory is set to be the biggest building on earth by footprint with 13 million square feet of space. The automaker also operates several other smaller but still fairly big facilities, like its final assembly line in Tilburg, Netherlands, which covers 840,000 square feet.
Now the company is about to invest in a factory in China. While the plans have yet to be unveiled, earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016, and it looks like it will be huge.
We learn that Shanghai could now be the front-runner as Tesla reportedly signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” to invest in a $9 billion electric vehicle factory in the region.
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As we discussed in the past, the Tesla Model X is expected to be popular in China – in part due to its new air filtration system (though it’s now also available with the Model S). Now Tesla is about to start deliveries in the country and it will establish ‘operational headquarters’ in Beijing to manage its expansion in the country.
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China has developed a new charging standard in order to more efficiently deploy a charging infrastructure capable of supporting the up to 5 million electric vehicles it hopes to get on the roads by 2020. Tesla is now fully on board and announced today the launch of the ‘Tesla Charging Partner Program’ in China to promote the national EV charging standard.
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