China Banning Non-Electric Cars

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"Driving an electric car in China, where coal is by far the largest power plant fuel, is a catastrophe for climate change"
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ily-clean/

Ah, that's worth knowing. A few years ago one January, the temperature was below freezing, even the highs, for the entire month.

Electric cars rely on coal-burning plants to generate the electricity. In my state during the 20th century (and since), natural gas is abundant and cheap. Electricity is more costly, but, has been a long-lasting industry in the state. Unfortunately, the coal plants were the target of Greek immigrants (mostly Democrats) who rightly sued the plants and utility businesses because of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as "black lung disease" since the 1950s and 1960s. It turned out that coal plants are very, very risky for local populations whether they are employed by the plants, or simply live near them.

So, if China wants to rely on coal plants (presuming that its Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric plants aren't dedicated to consumer use for electric cars), watch for local populations near the coal plants to die even faster than they are now, given China's pollution problems. Many researchers say that electric cars still cost more per mile than petroleum-burning cars.

But, the world will likely never know about China choosing which of its industrial cities will become ghost towns of disease. After all, China isn't known for its free-speech laws.

What works for China doesn't necessarily work for us. And vice versa.

That's great news that China is doing that. IMHO That's the smart thing for them to do. And indirectly it benefits us (that China is taking this option for China).

But whether we should do the same (just ban gas cars over night) is whole nother question.

It would be nice if the US were to expand the electric car infrastructure so that all three (gas, electrics, and hybrids) could compete.

But we cant just immediately "ban" cis-gas cars like China can. China doesn't have many consumer gas cars relative to its population yet. So there isn't much to ban. Precisely because china has rapidly industrialized is only now at the threshold of becoming a consumer society like the US has long been it has the luxury of options. It can opt to recreate our transport system on its soil or not to. And its smart for them to opt for "not to", and to do things a little bit different from how we went in the 20th century vis-à-vis cars and highways. But since we have already gone down the road set by Henry Ford a hundred some years ago we cant turn the clock back so easily. And there are many other diffrences between China and the USA as well that make this action more rational for China than it would be for the US.

Notice how politically correct I am to call nonhybrid gas cars cis-gas cars (like cis gender people). Lol!

Electric cars have many issues that need to be fixed before they can be seriously considered for a total replacement of the gas or diesel powered variant. Among the major issues are: susceptibility to remote hacking, susceptibility to most power grid problems, batteries that can hold large charges for long periods of time/recharge quickly (turnaround time needs to be reduced), the need for non-carbon based electrical power sources for recharging them (ie. more efficient nuclear/solar power), etc....

It will take a long time just to fix the ones I mentioned above, so I just do not see it being possible here in America any time soon.

If this is something you really fear, this issue wouldn't be specific to just electrics. But just about any modern car is vulnerable to someone who is determined, with the knowledge to do so (Government, most likely)... Personally this is not something I fear, I am not that interesting of a person and I don't fear my government.

practically all cars have scary amounts of computers nowadays and can be hacked, teslas in particular just don't try to hide them much.


one advantage of my ancient shitbox camry...

it might be cleaner to buy an old gas guzzling truck than a new ecocar, since you're not actually putting a new vehicle on the road....or is this mistaken?

Indeed. Keep your car functioning well enough to avoid towing (and maybe make it look good), and drive it proudly. Besides, insurance for older cars is incredibly cheaper than for newer cars. I worked with a lot of celebrity actors who intentionally drove the cheapest cars they could find for these reasons. If that wisdom worked for them, it works for me, too.

I think so, but I also use my truck to make a living (so I am not as concerned about it being a gas guzzler)... I usually buy my vehicles needing work, for example a truck needing a transmission. I get it for next to nothing, but everything overall is in great shape. I pull the transmission and drop it off to be rebuilt. I install the new transmission and I have a good working vehicle for a 3rd of the price. I also kept it from being scrapped.

seriously??

Is this really feasible?

Yes, look it up... Way to much info to post about it, also in some parts the world it's mined by children labor.

Daily Mail Article: Child miners aged four living a hell on Earth so YOU can drive an electric car.

not feasible... within current reality. there are many reasons, but without stating some first, the reduction of co2 emissions would be beyond negligible for making the transition right now.

it would take decades of increasing the amount of clean power power plants(nuclear energy is most certainly not clean power, and is far more catastrophic to the environment than co2 emissions during a disaster, and consider there’s no place to dispose of nuclear waste.), neighborhood grids would have to be fortified from coast to coast(one electric vehicle is the equivalent of adding another house to neighborhood grids while charging during off peak hours, and up to three if during... power outages galore if everyone had them immediately.). lastly, modern america wasn’t designed with anything but gas/diesel vehicles in mind(outside large cities), so banning gas/diesel poses a short sighted error that you lose trucks, busses, and 18 wheelers... public transit, transporting supplies/machinery, and supplying businesses would be outlawed instantly because electric vehicle technology isn’t currently capable of powering heavy vehicles.

I am not worried about it personally. I have a few collector cars (pre-1970s) to drive that predate when computer chips started being installed in vehicles. Kinda hard to hack them if the components are not set up for the hack in the first place.

On a side note: They even have manual 4-speeds to make driving fun.

What do you have? I've owned a couple classics, one being a 72 Triumph Spitfire, the other was a 63 Ford Falcon Convertible. I've also owned a number of modern classics... My next sports car I been been eyeing is a Alfa Romeo 4c Spider.

the whole point about China and electric cars is to get combustion engines out of their gigantic conurbations, and thus, reduce air pollution in cities.

yes, coal powered, but the powerplant is just not next to the forbidden city.

and: eventually, state-run power infrastructure will be upgraded to renewables in china, and at that point, private cars will already be electric.

but the main point is about reducing smog in cities. global warming is a side-issue for this action.

so, no real reason to ban combustion engines from missouri for a while, under this aspect - L.A. is different story.