Major city moves its pollution to a different, poorer area
should be the title.
I see they have learned from the Europeans
Like everyone else…
Yea look we fixed our city with EV’s. Please ignore the massive quarry we had to dig up in that other country and the fact that EV company owners pollute more than our entire city used to.
I’ll give China props for not being beholden to oil companies
They don’t have enough oil, that’s the only reason they want green energy.
Unfortunately, depending on the jetstream, we still get a lot of their pollution blowing over here to Korea. I think it is mostly from coal power plants on the coast. Anecdotally, the effect of EVs on the air there does feel like it has lessened the amount of smog that blows over to Korea, in the spring especially. Glad to hear they are making progress. Last time I was in Beijing the air was unbearably smoky (2011).
Yeah, seems like these days it’s mostly good, then every once in a while you get some massive smog bank blowing in. Definitely an (anecdotal) improvement over even just a few years ago when it was almost constantly smoggy in Korea. Korea is also not entirely innocent of coal dependency itself.
Unfortunately despite leading on EVs, renewables and nuclear power deployment, China is also expanding coal. So their greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.
I was under the impression that they reached peak CO2 emissions and have been flat or falling for the past year or so
Honestly I thought so too, but I quickly looked it up before commenting, and at least according to Our World in Data it’s actually up both per capita and in absolute terms.
Interesting I’m not familiar with how these measurements are taken.
This was the source I was thinking of:
No mention of the Subway expansion during that time?
I had trouble finding numbers, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but the subway went from around 200km to 900km and from a handful of lines to 30 lines since 2008.
yeah they have done alot things to improve not just ev’s
Ya, the article mentions shutting down factories and coal plants, etc., but it didn’t say anything about the massive subway expansion, which must be getting a lot of cars off of the road.
Yeah but EVs means we can use the same profit making capitalist system. Trains and subways don’t turn as much profit. And it’s a socialist mode of transportation. /s
While America we are still tryna make a HSR from BakersField to Merced for the past 30 years
Who will ride this? god knows, we will somehow have full self driving cars by then
It’s great news regardless but I don’t know why they feel the need to over-attribute this to EVs. It’s not like the majority of the population in Beijing ever drove cars. Regulations on heavy industry are briefly glossed over 10 paragraphs down so they can go back to glowing about EVs. But my impression after visiting Beijing was that a lot of the smog came from people relying on coal cakes for everyday cooking and heating.
Clearer than ever, but still (currently) >4x WHO recommended pollution levels
https://www.iqair.com/us/china/beijing/beijing
China in general has improved drastically but it still has pretty big issues in the winter due in large part to the increased heating demand.
I can remember when China mostly got around on bicycles.
It pains me to say it, this century is indeed China’s century. Unless World War 3 happens if Thucydides’ trap is indeed the law of nature/ jungle.
“Thanks to EV” → annoying oversimplification. As even this biased article states “The change has been a result of government policy focusing on smog reductions, including restrictions on heavy industry”. One should also add expansion of public transit services to the mix of factors.
It’s always nice to see some good news in the shitshow that is modern day life, makes me hopeful that a better future is still possible. I hope that one day Beijing (and the rest of the world) can go back to clean air 365 days a year.
Let’s hope the heavier EVs don’t rip up too much toxic road particles in the process.
Unlike the ICE SUVs that only weight 2.5 tons, right?
American cars are of course in their own class. 😅
My Volvo EX40 has a curb weight of 2,100+ kg though. 😬
American cars pre-1985 were heavier.
I’m sorry, I don’t think I understand the point.
They also moved shitload of industry outside of Beijing around 2008, so the pollution moves to more rural cities.
EV and transport in Beijing is great, impressive, and I enjoy them greatly when I was there, but it is also important to set realistic expectations. Switching to EV and transport improves people’s lives a lot and probably can be a golden bullets in many western cities. But for a city as dense and big as Beijing, there needs to be other sacrifices.
Interesting. I’m not sure “clearer than ever” is a good descriptor for one of the regions with the worst air quality in the world. It gets much worse in the summer. It’s certainly better at the moment than some other cities in China.
great thing that PM2.5’s been vanquished. don’t the visibility issues mostly come from inner-mongolian winds of the north, though?
Wondering if the air will actually be better for humans though. There’s a lot more particles being ripped from the roads with these heavier EVs, and road particles are quite toxic as far as I understand, so not great. But yeah, great to have clear skies.
I’d imagine the amount of road particles ripped up is less than the amount of CO2, NOx, ozone and other pollutants and fine particles emitted by combustion engines, but I’m no expert. Only time will tell, but at least short-term the results seem positive.
Less maybe, but probably more toxic than carbon dioxide, which isn’t really dangerous per se.
There’s more than just CO2 coming from combustion engines though, like nitrogen and sulfur containing compounds, which can in turn cause secondary pollution. Cumulatively, I think those pollutants have a bigger effect on human health than the road particles. Also, these road particles still get ripped up by regular cars, even if it’s to a lesser extent. So overall I’m still convinced that EVs are a step in the right direction. We can’t know for sure until more studies are performed.
Only way to have truly humane roads is to have them made of pure diamond, I guess. Only the purest blood diamonds, of course! None of that lab grown shit.
The majority of wear on roads by far comes from trucks and busses.
Personal vehicles are almost negligible in comparison, regardless of what engine they’re using.
Interesting. That’s comforting if true.
Most EVs by number in Chinese cities are electric motorbikes and tricicles, much much lighter than an electric car
Are electric motorbikes and tricycles heavier than their gasoline-powered equivalents?
Likely, but damage to roads increases with the square power of vehicle weight per wheel, meaning that just by virtue of being half the weight per wheel than cars their impact on road degradation is negligible.
Oh, nice, I didn’t know that we have hard numbers on this. Cool, thank you.
MGS5 EV -> 1650 Kg
MG ZS gasoline -> 1250
Not that different. And you have to add another 50 - 80 L of gasoline¹ to make it even.
¹ the size of the tank is not shown in the specs.
⅓ increase or so. Pretty big difference IMO.
My compact SUV Volvo EX40 has a 2,100+ kg curb weight.
Imagine this though: all the cars in the world switch from gas to electric, and on average add 30% of weight to every vehicle (which does seem like the normal increase). Wouldn’t that equate to adding, like, “X number of 18-wheelers” to the roads, wear and tear wise? Or does it not work like that?
