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Bo Zhang

Professor Rachel Porter

English 1201

29 April 2019

Electric Cars Effect on the Chinese Environment

In recent years, the energy crisis and environmental protection problems caused by

automobiles have become increasingly serious. Human beings need to create a new type of

vehicles that use clean energy. China has put forward the concept of electric cars from the

perspectives of energy conservation, emission reduction, low-carbon environmental protection

and energy security, with emphasis on the development of clean energy vehicles. At present,

China has become the world's largest user of clean energy vehicles. Human beings should keep

developing the electric cars in order to keep a sustain development of the Earth development.

Types of clean energy vehicles

New clean energy vehicles can be divided into three categories, electric vehicles, natural

gas vehicles and ethanol fuel vehicles. (Westbrook, 2001) Electric cars are driven by vehicle-

mounted power sources and run by electric wheels, which meet the national definition of motor

vehicles and meet safety requirements on the road. Compared with petrol-powered cars, electric

cars can reduce emissions of polluting gases such as carbon dioxide and prevent environmental

problems such as global warming. At the same time, “the electric vehicle structure is simple,

easy to operate, reduce the use of petroleum, both environmental protection and for the owner to

save a lot of oil and maintenance costs, killing two birds with one stone” (Sperling, 2009). But
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this technology is not perfect at present, there will still be short driving range, low life of power

supply and other phenomena.

Natural gas vehicle is a new type of clean energy vehicle powered by natural gas. The

development of natural gas in the world is approaching maturity, and it is a clean energy that can

replace oil or diesel. Natural gas use is very safe, modern society has adopt the method of

compressed natural gas, with the combination between natural gas combustion and less carbon,

there would be an significant amount of decrease of gas, through the use of natural gas, can

enhance the service life of the steam car parts, reduce the wear rate of the engine and other parts,

auto maintenance, reduce the economic burden of owners. These are characteristics that fuel cars

do not possess. The biggest disadvantage of natural gas is that it is not easy to add natural gas.

As early as the 1920s, Brazil and other countries because of energy shortages and other

problems. (Zhang, 2019) The government has switched from petrol cars to ethanol cars. Because

Brazil is rich in sugar cane, it formed a processing chain to extract ethanol from sugar cane.

“Brazil became the first country to produce ethanol-gasoline with 20% ethanol content (Zhang,

2019).” Ethanol can improve the quality and quantity of fuel, increase the efficiency of fuel use,

but also reduce carbon monoxide and other toxic gas emissions. But there are many

disadvantages, such as starting power is not as big as fuel oil, hot weather is also easy to choke

off. Moreover, the storage time of ethanol is relatively short, only one month, which is not

conducive to long-term use, and can only be used now.

At present, all new clean energy vehicles still have various problems, but with the

development of new industrial revolution and with the development of science and technology,

the research and mastery of related technologies are becoming more and more mature
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Step towards the door of commercialization. It's multiple technologies working at the same time,

bringing together the masses. The new clean energy vehicles created by the power innovation are

in line with the needs of low-carbon economy. It has also strictly implemented China's

sustainable development strategy.

China has a huge automobile market, which gives new clean energy vehicles a broad

space for development. As for the eastern part of China, the eastern part develops rapidly, with a

large number of private cars and a large number of vehicle exhaust emissions, which brings

pollution to the air and is not conducive to environmental protection, as a developed city, the

eastern region has many industrial bases, and the problem of environmental pollution is quite

serious. Therefore, the implementation of sustainable development strategy is extremely urgent.

In the future, clean energy vehicles will be an industry strongly supported by China. With

relatively concentrated independent innovation, China's clean energy vehicles will surely catch

up with the international advanced level.

According to the article Electric and Hybrid Car , “state grid company the full

implementation of the national energy strategy, the control of air pollution, energy conservation

and emission reduction policies, to support the national strategic emerging industry development

(Anderson, 2005) ”in the field of public transport in new energy bus, taxi industry in new energy

cars and electricity services in pure electric cars and so on has carried out fruitful demonstration

work, accumulated rich experience, in order to promote the development of clean energy in

China automobile industry has made a positive contribution. State Grid North Hebei Electric

Power Co., ltd. implements the decision and deployment of state grid party leadership group,

promotes energy transformation and upgrading, creates open, intelligent, interactive, efficient
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charging network and Internet of vehicles platform, and establishes state grid north Hebei clean

energy.

Source of automotive services companies vigorously promote clean energy and green

development. Structural adjustment and energy technology reform will open up broad space for

development. There are gaps in capital and talent. The development of electric cars in China still

needs a large amount of financial support, and the goal of industrialization cannot be achieved at

present, and the promotion of industrialization is also inseparable from a large amount of

publicity. And clean energy vehicles belong to the emerging industry, in some key parts and

parts of the production need some relevant professionals to carry out (Giulio, 2017). New clean

energy vehicles also need people to use and manage them.

Through practice, it is found that hybrid electric vehicles can improve the fuel efficiency,

almost twice as much as ordinary cars, but the complicated conversion process makes its

structure unusually complex, causing huge difficulties to the production and installation. If the

complex dynamic force system is realized, the cost will rise linearly and it is difficult to realize

industrialization. Pure electric vehicles are currently trapped in battery technology, which has

been slow to be widely promoted. The key to making electric cars competitive with fuel cars is to

develop efficient batteries with high specific energy, high specific power and long service life.

At present, due to the low production, high price, short driving range, large investment in station

construction and slow charging speed, the development of electric vehicles is difficult.

The large-scale supply system of electric cars did not develop well in a mature way. At

present, China has not done a good job in the large-scale supply of clean energy. The country has

no corresponding plan to build a clean energy supply system, and the distribution of time is

uneven. All this leads to the lack of important material basis for clean energy vehicles.
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Development prospect of clean energy vehicles in China. people should focus on fully

development of the consumer market. First, we will create favorable conditions to encourage

consumers to buy clean cars and replace old cars in advance, especially those with excessive

emissions. Encourage the replacement of old cars with clean energy vehicles, which is conducive

to environmental protection and consumption. Second, we will make it easier to use clean energy

vehicles and improve our services. Third, we will continue to subsidize the purchase of clean

energy vehicles by consumers. For example, the number of cities carrying out demonstration and

promotion of energy-saving and clean energy vehicles can be increased, subsidies for energy-

saving and electric cars can be expanded, and the beneficiaries can be extended from groups to

individuals.

Vigorously develop clean energy vehicle technology. Clean energy vehicles are just

starting, and there is plenty of room for innovation. Car companies to product. North China

electric power has an extremely plan, multi-response, do our best to keep their advantages in a

clean energy vehicle technology field, continuous innovation and progress. According to the Car

Electrical Handbook, “China has made the electric car charging the recommended standards of

the state of the interface, purging electric facilities standard is set by the state grid corporation of

enterprise standards, in Beijing, Tanjin, Dalian, Qingdao and widespread application in the urban

transportation system (Holmes, 2018)” has been applied in Hangzhou taxi field, through the

practice, from a technical point of view, this standard push there is no problem to other cities.

Then people should establish a new energy supply system step by step. Food and grass go

before soldiers and horses. The development of clean energy automobile industry should be

long-term, sustainable and stable. The state and major enterprises in the industry should

gradually establish a new energy supply system and complete supporting facilities throughout the
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country. In this way, energy supply sources are provided for the healthy development of

industries, and business fields are broadened for the development of enterprises. For the country,

employment fields can be expanded and fiscal and tax revenues can be increased.

State grid corporation of China has fully implemented the major strategic plan of building

ecological civilization, actively advocated the new energy consumption mode of "electricity for

coal, electricity for oil and electricity from afar", promoted social energy conservation and

emission reduction, and actively promoted the development of electric vehicles and rail transit.

We will closely follow the development trend of the electric vehicle industry and the market,

deepen research on the business operation model of charging and changing electric vehicles, and

accelerate the development of a standard system for charging and changing electric vehicles. On

the basis of ensuring the safe operation of power grid and standardizing the access of power grid,

we will support relevant social parties in the construction and operation of charging and

changing facilities. We will integrate electric railways with urban rail construction plans in

various regions, take the initiative to build supporting power supply and power supply service

facilities, actively promote the electrification of transportation, and improve the quality of urban

development. (Grijalva, 2018)

In recent years, the electric vehicle industry in Hebei province has developed rapidly, and

the company in northern Hebei province has done a lot of effective work in the construction and

operation of charging facilities, the application and promotion of electric vehicles, etc., and has

achieved remarkable results in supporting the regional role of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated

development. According to the Timeline: History of the Electric Car, Hebei electric vehicle

charging and exchanging service network has been established with all efforts to accelerate the

establishment of electric vehicle charging and exchanging service network, realizing the full
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coverage of the expressway charging network within the operating area, and the establishment of

5km "charging ring" in the five urban centers in five cities, which has actively promoted the

development of electric vehicle industry in northern Hebei.

The development of new clean energy vehicles will be an initiative in human history,

greatly reducing environmental pollution and other problems, to meet China's energy saving

reduction, emission of low carbon environmental protection, sustainable development strategy. If

it can be industrialized and put into use on a large scale in China, it will truly benefit mankind

and completely change the current situation of China's dependence on oil, which will bring

extremely profound strategic significance to the country's environmental protection and

development issues.

Standards are not uniform and independent, which leads to confusion in R&D, production

and marketing, and drags down the whole development process of new energy vehicles

(Paine,2012). And the construction of charging points are few, and are located in the suburbs,

which brings great inconvenience to consumption. Third, the market price of electric cars is still

high. Although the technology of electric cars is progressing, the cost of automobile energy

vehicles is decreasing, and the central government of our country also gives corresponding

subsidies to new energy automobile buyers, it is still not very good to popularize private car

buyers. On the other hand, lack of stable development expectations and systematic subsidy

mechanism, lack of confidence in long-term.

The last way we know electric cars are a sustainable mode of transportation is by looking

at the economical side of things. In a news article titled “What Needs to Happen Before Electric
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Cars Take Over the World” by Jack Ewing, he discusses some challenges the electric

car industry has but focuses on the improving situations from a few years ago. He states “There

are already about 16,000 public charging stations in the United States, up from a few hundred in

2010” (Ewing, 2017). This is a huge improvement for the EV industry. A big barrier has always

been getting people started on this trend. Another economic related issue Ewing addresses is

the different performances between electric cars and gas powered cars. He says, “A $135,000

Tesla S clocked by Motor Trend magazine went from zero to 60 miles per hour faster than

Ferraris, Lamborghinis or Porsches costing hundreds of thousands of dollars more” (Ewing,

2017). This is an economical issue because people want to buy cars for their performance. No

one is going to buy an electric car if they perform worse, aren’t able to drive as far, and are an

overall inconvenience to buyers. Luckily this isn’t the case, from this article we can see that

charging stations are on a huge incline and electric cars are able to perform at much higher rates

for much cheaper of investment of enterprises.

It isn’t all success and fame for electric cars though. There are still problems, challenges,

and issues the industry faces. From this paper we know that it isn’t a new industry, however, it is

a new mainstream industry. One of the big drawbacks to the environmentally friendly benefits of

electric vehicles is the resources, more specifically the mining of the resources. In the article “

it discusses how mining prices for these lithium ion batteries and other raw materials needed for

batteries is very destructive to the environment. As the demand for these materials go up, the

sustainability of mining will go down due to customer demand. Mining is not regulated at
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the standards needed for our environment to benefit. This information, unfortunately, takes away

from the benefits of electric cars. A common phrase “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”

is relatable in this case. While electric cars are in fact helping the environment, we will never be

completely beneficial unless we apply the same passions about sustainability to every

aspect. The issue of expenses is brought up in the news article “What Needs to Happen

Before Electric Cars Take Over the World” by Jack Ewing. He states “Electric cars will go

mainstream when the cost of the powertrain the motor and other guts that make the vehicle

move is the same as owning cars that burn gasoline or diesel. How soon that day arrives is

almost solely a function of the price of batteries” (Ewing, 2017).

This is a problem because it depends on the mining of batteries. The stricter mining

becomes, the more sustainable it is. However, when that happens the price of mining will

increase and keep battery prices high. He also says that the electric cars powertrain costs an

average of $16,000 where a gas powertrain costs $6,000 (Ewing, 2017). These key factors are

big challenges for the electric car industry and for it to be successful these issues will need to be

resolved. Luckily automakers are on board with this shift as Ewing shows automakers

investments in being $100 billion by 2020 (Ewing, 2017) and these issues will need to be

resolved. Luckily automakers are on board with this shift as Ewing shows automakers

investments in being $100 billion by 2020 (Ewing, 2017). The time it takes for full stainability of

cars is a long process with lots of hoops to jump through. Electric vehicles are the solution for

fixing our environment when it comes to the auto industry. While we have finally started paying

attention to the time we have left to fix our earth we are beginning to make large strides in these

EV efforts. America is at the forefront of new technologies, emissions, and renewable energies.

If we do not support the electric car business now we will in fact miss our opportunity to save the
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environment from what we caused in the first place. I encourage all of us to do our part in being

conscious in our car purchases and our daily decisions on driving in order to save our

environment.

“The new energy automobile subsidy standard dropped 5% in 2014 on the basis of 2013

standards, and 10% in 2015 on the basis of 2013 standards (De, 1977)”. Fourthly, consumers do

not know enough about the concept of new energy vehicles. Domestic consumers hardly know

much about electric vehicles. Most consumers have only heard about electric cars but they barely

know the electric cars. Many potential customers doubt the safety and convenience of new

electric vehicles.

In conclusion, although the development of new energy vehicles has not in a smooth

speed since there is a lot of difficulties. However, with the development of new source and

increasing customer demand, the development of new vehicles has made a little bit progress.

Because electric cars are not yet popular all over China, then it is not possible for people to

charge cars for every city, especially for some small and undeveloped cities, in this way, using

electric cars is not convenient to everyone. In addition, the electric cars power system has not

developed well and it’s charge section is also not developed well, and generally need several
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hours, which is not very convenient to users, For electric cars that use electricity, the battery

capacity of the car is limited, so the continuous mileage of the car will also be limited, generally

not for a long distance driving. Second, the after-sales service is not mature either. As a new

product in the automobile industry, electric cars are still needed to be improved from all kinds of

aspects. For the after-sales service of electric cars, there are still not enough well-trained

customer service staff to help customer and provide professional help.

However, despites the disadvantages of electric cars. Electric cars are environmentally

friendly, which means electric cars mainly use non-fuel power devices, and they do not need

anything that may cause pollution to the earth. Instead, they use of clean energy---electricity. In

this way, people could use less of the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases, so as to

achieve the purpose of environmental protection. Electric cars do not have to limit the number of

travelling. Due to the serious environmental pollution, in order to reduce the environmental

pressure, many cities have adopted the method of limiting the number of cars to restrict the

private car travel. However, the new energy vehicle is almost zero pollution, zero emissions, so it

is not limited to the range, more convenient travel. The electric cars have high efficiency.

General electric cars use new technology, new structure, make it more efficient.
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Work Cited

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www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/business/electric-car-adoption.html

De Waard, E.John, and Aaron E. Klein. Electric Cars. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1977.,

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