Electric Vehicles

crosspostato da: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35203087

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This is an op-ed piece by Katharina Osthoff, Senior Policy Advisor at Friedrich Naumann Eurooe Foundation, and Sam Goodman, Senior Policy Director of the China Strategic Risks Institute, the co-Founder and co-Chair of the New Diplomacy Project.

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While the growing influx of competitively priced and well equipped Chinese EVs may appear the superior choice for both consumers and policymakers in Europe, they bring with them substantial economic risks. These risks threaten the domestic automotive industry, which is outmatched by Chinese EV production as well as Europe’s ambitious environmental goals that rely on a substantial shift towards EVs. Yet, the implications extend far beyond economic or ecological concerns. Chinese EVs potentially pose new challenges when it comes to the EU’s commitment to data protection abroad and at home, as well as to upholding security and global human rights standards.

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At the heart of China’s EV production lie deliberate, state-controlled industrial policies: massive state subsidies, overcapacity, and strategic export orientation. This has enabled China’s EV manufacturers to produce high-quality vehicles at near-unbeatable prices, which facilitated companies like BYD, Nio, and Chery to scale-up production rapidly and flood global markets, including in Europe. [...] Today, Beijing holds influential positions across the entire supply chain: from raw material extraction to battery production and final assembly. The EU's commitment to a green transition, which heavily relies on increasing the market share of EVs, exacerbates this issue. This situation highlights a paradox where European liberal free-market democracies are seemingly outperformed by China's state-supported enterprises.

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[European] domestic manufactures are hamstrung by fragmented national policies and underinvestment. This imbalance risks creating a structural dependency on Chinese imports. Unlike past technological shifts, this dependency is not only commercial in nature but also geopolitical. China’s overcapacity is not a market accident but rather the product of deliberate policy choices , aimed at dominating critical technologies and global value chains. The implications for the EU extend far beyond industrial competitiveness. As demonstrated in past cases of economic coercion, most notably against Lithuania, Beijing has shown its willingness to use market access and trade ties as instruments of political pressure. A future in which China controls a large share of the EU’s EV market risks giving Beijing undue influence over European policymaking, including the ability to discourage criticism of its human rights record, military posture, or foreign policy behaviour.

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Driving a Trojan Horse? Data, Security, and Surveillance

Aside from the clear economic risks that Chinese EVs present to Europe’s automotive manufacturing, growing concerns about data privacy, surveillance, and cybersecurity cannot be sidelined. As the former head of MI6 aptly put it, EVs are not just cars but “computers on wheels.” European regulators should take seriously the data security risks this implies. Under the National Intelligence Law and China’s Data Security Law, Chinese EV manufacturers and their suppliers operate under a legal obligation to cooperate with the Ministry of State Security and are prohibited from disclosing this cooperation to foreign governments, raising serious cybersecurity concerns. Chinese Communist Party cells are required to be embedded within the corporate structures of these [EV] firms, making the firewall between commercial operations and the Chinese state increasingly porous. Additionally, many manufacturers rely on software and components from firms such as DeepSeek, which have already been flagged for their data practices.

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Hidden Costs: Labour and Human Rights in the EV Supply Chain

At the same time, the EU cannot afford to ignore the human rights concerns associated with China’s EV supply chain. Beijing has secured a commanding lead in the supply chain for key battery materials with Chinese firms like BYD having established a strong presence in lithium mining and processing operations across Latin America and parts of Africa. [...] The growing scrutiny has already led to tangible shifts in corporate behaviour. Volkswagen’s recent decision to exit Xinjiang reflects growing pressure on European firms to sever ties with entities linked to systemic human rights abuses. While the company cited economic reasons for the sale, the move underscores the reputational and legal risks European firms face if they remain entangled with controversial actors in the Chinese EV ecosystem. Beyond supply chains, the ethical and legal implications of technology partnerships with Chinese firms demand closer examination. Several leading Chinese tech companies such as Hikvision and others have been implicated in surveillance activities and abuses, particularly in Xinjiang. Partnerships of this nature carry considerable reputational risks in liberal democracies and may expose European firms to secondary sanctions or consumer backlash.

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Such pragmatic policy solutions aimed at restoring the EU’s competitive edge should include:

• The EU should commit to reviewing the EU’s countervailing tariffs on Chinese EVs within the first year of the new EU Commission.
• The EU should review the EU’s current Foreign Direct Investment Regulation to focus on rules regarding joint ventures to look at local ownership requirements, data security requirements, and local content requirements.
• The EU should legally require foreign EV companies from a country where the EU does not have a data standards equivalency agreement to store data on European servers and to commit not to transfer the data overseas under any circumstances.
• The EU should negotiate economic security partnership agreements with value partners such as Japan and the Republic of Korea. One target under these partnerships would be to encourage joint ventures between European automotive producers and world leading Japanese and South Korea battery producers including Samsung, SK Innovation, Panasonic, and LG Energy Solution.
• The EU should investigate forced labour in Xinjiang, add the geographic region of Xinjiang to its forced labour risk database, and introduce guidelines for European businesses regarding the prevalence of forced labour goods in the automotive supply chain.
• European policymakers should expand tax incentives and other measures to encourage European automotive companies to work together to share research, development, and production costs for EVs.
• The European Commission should work with European Member States to coordinate Next Generation EU and Multiannual Financial Framework funds to support the development of the European EV sector, including encouraging matching private sector investment in the EV battery supply chain and EV charging infrastructure. This should serve as the frontrunner to an EU-wide Green Industrial Strategy.

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This is really pretty amazing how poorly designed the Tesla doors are, where if the power fails (like in a crash or a fire), you might need to remove the speaker grill or two separate panels to get to the emergency mechanical door release.

Hydrogen - it's the future!

Crossposted from https://lazysoci.al/post/25169449

Bit of a clickbait headline - it's actually a Nissan Micra EV based on the R5.

NISSAN has revealed a next-generation budget EV to rival Renault 5 with 248 miles of charge.

The financially-stricken carmaker has partnered with Renault to create an “audacious” spin-off to the R5 while remaining “true to the DNA of its predecessors”.

Committee warns of serious injustice to disabled motorists and those reliant on public chargers

Affected roads include vital routes for holidaymakers, including A2 towards Folkestone and parts of A303 and A30

A poll of more than 8,200 drivers has found widespread support for green signs pointing to public EV charging locations and pricing displays similar to fuel stations.

This is a GB News article, but it's good to see that reducing the public charging VAT rate will be debated.

Launches tomorrow...

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is set to confirm the Government will consult on easing rules related to the phasing-out of new petrol and diesel cars, the PA news agency understands.

The Cabinet minister is expected to use a speech to the automotive industry on Tuesday night to announce that changes to flexibilities available to manufacturers as part of the zero-emission vehicles (Zev) mandate will be proposed.

Under the mandate, at least 22% of new cars sold by each manufacturer in the UK this year must be zero-emission, which generally means pure electric.

The threshold will rise annually, including to 28% in 2025.

Under the current rules, the mandate will reach 80% by 2030, but the Government has committed to bring the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans forward from 2035 to 2030.

Failure to abide by the mandate or make use of flexibilities – such as buying credits from rival companies or making more sales in future years – will result in a requirement to pay the Government £15,000 per polluting car sold above the limits.

The consultation, which will be launched in the coming weeks, is unlikely to propose changes to the mandate’s percentages.

It will include amendments to the options for how non-compliant manufacturers can avoid fines.

BYD clearly hopes to pitch its vehicles as aspirational. But their real allure is that they are affordable. One model on display, the Dolphin, sells for around £25,000 ($33,000); British car reviewers have called the pricing “attractive” and “impressively low”. What really worries BYD’s Western rivals is that there is plenty of room for prices to fall. In China the Dolphin sells for 99,800 yuan, or just over £10,000. An analysis by Rhodium Group, a consultancy, found that BYD could cut its prices in Europe by 30% and still make the same profit per car that it does in China.

Consumers are gradually cottoning on to the appeal of Chinese EVs. Seeing an Ora, Maxus, MG or BYD marque on the road in Britain still feels noteworthy. On current trends, that won’t be the case for long. Chinese brands now make up around 10% of new EV sales in Britain, up from around 3-4% five years ago (see chart). Those figures, if anything, understate China’s increasing role in the car market because Western brands are also shifting carmarking to China. According to data from Jato Dynamics, an automotive-research firm, 22% of EVs registered in Britain (and 7.5% of all cars) are now made in China.

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Thankfully, Britain’s new Labour government has so far largely leant away from such protectionism. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said in July that he was not planning to ask the independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to investigate Chinese EVs, a necessary first step towards tariffs. Britain’s own car industry, which can also demand an investigation, has held off, too.

Why the different approach? After all, Labour ran for election on a “securonomics” platform that takes explicit inspiration from President Joe Biden’s economic policies. The main motivation is likely to be fear of retaliatory tariffs. China is a big export market for high-end producers like Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Bentley, which make up a big chunk of Britain’s car industry. Losing the market for Chinese tycoons would hurt. And China would be unlikely to limit its retaliation to the car industry. Scottish salmon and whisky might be juicy targets; China buys lots of both products and Labour is loth to risk alienating voters north of the border.

Archive

North-east Derbyshire and Redditch, in the West Midlands, are among the worst public “charging deserts” for electric vehicles in Great Britain, according to an analysis that found 9.3m households do not have off-street parking where they could install a charger.

More than three-quarters of households that park their cars on the street do not have a public charger for electric vehicles within a five-minute walk, according to the analysis by the Field Dynamics consultancy.

The number of places to plug in is increasing rapidly, with a 46% growth in the number of public chargers across the UK in the year to July 2023, according to the data company ZapMap. However, regulators are concerned about big areas known as “charging deserts”, particularly outside cities, that are not served adequately by the public network.

The average gap between London’s coverage and the rest of Great Britain is growing, from a 32 percentage point difference in 2020 to a 47 percentage point difference this year. In 38 local authorities, less than 10% of households have parking covered by the public charger network.

Public battery charging stations for electric vehicles in Great Britain.

Source: https://x.com/au_tom_otive/status/1818217121769267512

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/17620489

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An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

Thoughts? I doubt the base version will be £30k, but I think this looks decent.

Car manufacturers have called for urgent action to reignite the switch to electric vehicles, after sales figures showed slowing demand among ordinary motorists for battery-powered cars.

While overall UK registrations grew by 1% in April year-on-year to 134,000, the increase was caused by fleet sales, with private buyer sales down by almost 18% on last year.

Manufacturers are alarmed by slowing sales growth in battery electric vehicles, which in the first four months of 2024 have only increased market share by 0.3% from the same period in 2023, to 15.7%, despite the rapid take-up in previous years.

While the industry expects the figure to improve this year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that BEV sales would be below government targets of 22% of all new cars, and called for steps to “re-enthuse” buyers, including tax cuts, incentives and more chargers.>

The journalist and electric vehicle campaigner Quentin Willson has said he is "staggered" after the Government did not cut VAT for EV charging in the budget.

He explained: "FairCharge is staggered that the Chancellor is prepared to spend £5billion on a fuel duty freeze and continuation of the 5p cut, yet won't spend 125th of that - circa £40million - on cutting the VAT on public EV charging.

"Why wouldn't you support a drive for cleaner air in our towns and cities? Might it have something to do with an election, we wonder."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/7575755

The Mr Bean actor was name-checked in the House of Lords on Tuesday during its environment and climate change committee meeting.

Thinktank Green Alliance gave its views on the main obstacles the government faces in its bid to phase out petrol and diesel cars before 2035, and said a comment piece by the Johnny English star published in June 2023 was damaging to the cause.

The pressure group told peers in a letter that was shared: "One of the most damaging articles was a comment piece written by Rowan Atkinson in The Guardian which has been roundly debunked.

"Unfortunately, fact checks never reach the same breadth of audience as the original false claim, emphasising the need to ensure high editorial standards around the net zero transition."

The 69-year-old actor's piece was headlined: "I love electric vehicles - and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped."

Atkinson wrote that EVs were "a bit soulless" and criticised the use of their lithium-ion batteries.

He suggested solutions like drivers keeping the same car for longer periods of time and increased use of synthetic fuel would negate the need for EVs, saying: "Increasingly, I'm feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that's no bad thing."

The actor, who described himself as a "car person" having got a degree in electrical and electronic engineering, said he advised friends to "hold fire for now" on EVs unless they have an old diesel vehicle.