OverviewThe paper consists of four parts.First, it introduces the brief history of electric vehicles (EVs) and different types of EVs in marketplace.The history of EVs dates back to nearly two centuries ago. The first EV was built in 1835 while the firstsuccessful and practical one was created in 1891. By the end of the 19th century, more than 4,000 EVs wereproduced in the US. Nevertheless, EVs became less popular after the mass production of gasoline-powered carsstarting from the 20th centrury. In the following decades, gasoline-powered cars kept developing and turned into themainstream means of transportation around the world. However, with growing environmental concerns and mountingoil price caused by oil embargo, EVs came into sight once again in the 1970s. Although there is a general title of EV,it can be divided into four types due to their different functional principles: hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-inhybrid vehicles (PHEV), battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV).Second, it analyzes the current development and government policies towards EVs in China.In 2016, the global EV sales reached 750 thousand and the global EV stock was more than 2 million. EVs aremore prevailing and popular in Europe with highest ratio of EV consumption among all passenger light-duty vehicles(PLDVs). For instance, in 2016, EV sales accounted for 29% of PLDV sales in Norway and the number was 6.4% inNetherland, representing the top two countries concerning the ratio of EV sales. Moreover, Norway, the Netherlandsand the UK has announced that they are going to allow only EV sales by 2020s. China is also chasing the pace ofthose leading countries with regard to the development of EV industry. Even though the promotion of EVs in Chinastarted later than developed countires, Chinese EV consumption is undergoing fastest development in the worldthanks to positive government support. It took up 40% of global EV market sales and became the largest EVconsumption country in the world in 2016. In the meantime, China, surpassing the US, ranked as the number onecountry of EV stock and made up of one third of total global EV stock.Unlike EU countries and other developed countires such as Japan, China has focused on the promotion of BEVsinstead of HEVs and PHEVs since the incipient stage. China initiated the large-scale development of EVs in 2009,when the Chinese State Council passed a plan to carry out the electric cars strategy in both supply and demand sides.Under this strategy, China plans to meet the goal of 500,000 EV production and 5% market share of EV sales inthree years. However, the EV market sales increased by a 60% year-on-year growth to 75,000, accounting for merely0.85% of all the PLDV sales. Consequently, the Chinese government continues and enlarges the promotion of EVs.The Ministry of industry and information has enacted a new plan, which says EV sales should reach 20% of the totalPLDV sales by 2025. In order to accomplish this goal, the Chinese government is taking various measures. Thesuppoting policies by the government contain subsities, tax exemption and license plate incentives. Currently,consumers who purchase BEVs will obtain subsidies ranging from RMB 30,000-66,000 (roughly USD 4,620-10,163)from both the central and local goverments based on different mileage scales EVs can travel. In addition, BEVconsumers will be excempted from paying purchase tax. It is worth noting that the subsities and tax exemptionregulations are applicable for only domestic EV brands. In other words, those measures could stimulate both theproduction and sales of EVs within China. What’s more, BEV consumers will acquire license plates for free or withhigh probabilities. In many Chinese metropolis, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, local governmentsimplemented purchase restrictions and license plate lotteries for conventional gasoline-powered cars in order tocontrol the rising number of vehicles and the execrating air conditions. Nevertheless, BEVs are exempt from thoseregulations and restrictions. In Beijing, citizens are able to buy a BEV directly without competing in the license platelotteries for conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, which has a 0.11% low success rate. Similarly, in Shanghai,where the licese plates can only be purchased by auction with prices no less than RMB 80,000 (approxikately USD12330), the local government provides additional 20,000 license plates every year for BEVs without any charge.Third, it tries to explain whether EVs in China are environmental friendly or not.The original intention of EV expansion in China is to reduce pollution and enhance air qualities. Indeed, theconsumption of oil will be lessened with the rising proportion of EV sales and ownership, it is not meeting the initialgoal as refer to environmental protection. It is true that the energy saved by EVs, especially BEVs is less thanconventional gasoline-powered vehicles when travelling on the road, the overall fossil fuel consumption andpollution is not lower than gasoline-powered cars if a whole industrial chain is taken into account. To begin with, thenon-green fact of EV is depend on current Chinese electricity structure. It is well known that certain amount ofenergy should be used to generate electricity, which is the fuel resource of electric cars. In China, coal is the primary resource within the energy mix to generate electricity, with 70% electricity generated by coal-fired power plants in2016. Other clean resources, such as nuclear, solar, hydro and wind make up only 29% in the total consumption offuels used to generate electricity. By contrast, in US, coal-fired power plants generated 34% of electricity in 2016while natural gas and nuclear accounted for 27% and 22% respectively. As for Norway, where 96.3% electricity wasbased on hydro power in 2016, achieved real environmental friendly from the electricity generation perspective.Coal, without any processings before burning in the coal-fired power plants, will impose very negative impact onenvironment when generate electricity. The pollutants emit by coal-fired power plants cover noxious fumes, such assulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, and greenhouse gas. In 2015, the proportion of waste gas emissions by coal-firedpower plants among all the industrial waste gas emmisions was 30% in China. That is to say, electricity, which is thefuel resource of EVs, is not environmental friendly. Secondly, the promotion of EVs in current stage will lead toimbalanced environmental development among Chinese cities. At present, the EVs are comparatively prosperous inmetropolis. Meanwhile, coal-fired power plants are withdrawing from urban to rural areas. For instance, Beijing shutall the power plants based on coal in 2016 while the Togtoh coal-fired power plant located in inner Mongolia issupplying 1/4 of Beijing’s electricity. Consequently, the environment situation in metropolis is improving while theenvironment in rural area is exacerbating. In this way, the promotion of EVs in China will not be beneficial forenvironment from the nationwide angle. Finally, battery pollution is another negative environmental problemgenerated by EVs. China is still in the incipient stage of EV sales with most of the cars are equipped with newlyproducedlithium batteries. However, China is facing the first phase of massive battery decommissioning in eight toten years. The pollutants within abandoned batteries include cobalt, fluorine, ammonia-nitrogen wastewater andheavy metal wastewater. It will be a serious problem when recycling and dealing with those pollutants from wastebatteries in the near future.Fourth, this paper offers several suggestions for building a greener EV industry in China.In order to buid a greener EV industry in China, this paper proposes three suggestions. First of all, promotingPHEV instead of BEVs. As mentioned above, since the primary resource of electricity generation in China is coal,HEVs and PHEVs are more environmental friendly than BEVs. According to data, in California, the state with thehighest ratio of clean energy-generated electricity in the US, CO_2 emission by BEV is 100 grams/mile, which is onlyhalf of PHEV’s. Nevertheless, in the middle-west and southern states of the US, where coal is the primary electricityresource, CO_2 emission of PHEV is less than that of a BEV. Consequently, PHEVs are greener than BEVs if Chinasustains current electricity structure. Second, increasing the proportion of natural gas in the energy mix to generateelectricity. Natural gas power plants are more environmental friendly since the sulfur dioxide and smoke emissionsare nearly zero while the nitrogen oxide emission is only 1/10 of coal-fired power plants. However, the Chinesegovernment should solve the problem of natural gas price regime since natural gas is much more expensive than coal.Meanwhile, there is still a long way to go concerning the natural gas infrastructure constructions. Third, improvingclean coal technologies and enhancing efficiencies of coal-fired power plants. Based on energy production mix,China is rich in coal. It is not complying with national condition if China abandon the use of coal. Thus, how toutilize coal more efficient and more environmental friendly is the superior issue. Technologies concerning dustelimination, desulphurization, denitrification and waste water disposal should be applied to coal-fired power plantsin the current stage.MethodsThe paper adopted interdisciplinary research, case study and statistical analysis methods.ResultsBy researching on Chinese EV policies, the paper considers that EVs are not achieving the initial goal asimproving environment according to coal-based electricity structure and battery pollutions. Thus, in order to build agreener EV industry in China, the government should promote PHEV, increase natural gas to generate electricity andapply clean coal technologies.ConclusionsWith increasing enrironmental concerns and energy security considerations, people draw more attention to EVs.The EV sales and stocks keep increasing worldwidely, especially in EU countries. China, which has promoted EVsin recent years, is the most promising country concerning EV consumption. The Chinese government enacted variouspolicies, including subsities, tax exemption and license plate incentives, to support the EV development. Eventhough the initial goal of EV promotion by Chinese government is to improve environment, EVs in China are not asgreen as advertised if coal-based electricity structure, policy-caused imbalanced pollution among cities and batteryrecycling problems are taken into account. Consequently, several measures, covering promoting PHEV instead ofsolely BEV, increasing the use of natural gas for electricity generation and applying clean coal technologies in largescale,should be taken in order to build a greener EV industry in China.
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