World’s largest car market, China, just announced an imminent end to petrol and diesel cars
Chinese officials have said in Tianjin this week that the government is working on a timetable to end “production and sales of traditional energy vehicles,”
This means that petrol and diesel engine cars are on the radar of the Chinese government.
Regulators have said that they have begun the “relevant research,” on the issue and the new policies on traditional polluting engines will be implemented “in the near future.”
The details are somewhat sketchy at this time but it would appear that China plans to shift away from fossil fuels.
In recent years, China have put in place massive research and consumer subsidies and are moving towards something like a cap-and-trade program for fuel economy and emissions.
China have not implemented any real concrete policies yet so how it all will be implemented has yet to be seen.
Looking beyond these proposed policy changes, we have to remember that China is the world’s largest car market and are responsible for around 30 percent of global passenger vehicle sales.
This is a huge deal, globally speaking having this announcement of an imminent end to fossil fuel cars.
This is just one of many remarkable developments around EVs (Electric Vehicles) recently.
The electric vehicle revolution is happening right now, much sooner than most analysts had expected.
How this EV revolution unfolds is a source of much dispute and uncertainty in the global markets as it will have a huge effect on oil demand, electricity demand, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and global trade flows.
In many ways, questions around EVs parallel questions around renewable energy.
As many have heard, renewable energy has been consistently underestimated. If the EV technologies improve at the pace they have been and they continue to beat expectations, an EV revolution is imminent.
Then again, with any revolution, there is also a lot of hype and the usual wildly conflicting projections, plenty of risks and pitfalls ahead.
(As always, if you or a family member are considering buying a used car, don’t buy until you run a car check report with MyVehicle.ie where you will find out the true history of the vehicle.)
Author
Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader
in automotive intelligence and vehicle
data supply to the entire motor industry.
He has almost 20 years experience in
building systems from the ground up.
As the Managing Director of Vehicle
Management System, he understands the
need and importance of trustworthy and
reliable vehicle history and advice to
both the trade and the public.
Follow me on LinkedIn