Chinese EV’s are worse for the environment than their petrol equivalents
According to Environmental Finance:
Running an electric vehicle in China would emit more greenhouse gases than its petrol-fuelled equivalent, according to an expert in emissions reduction projects.
Despite the country’s expertise in electric vehicles and its growing manufacturing base – Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn only this week said it is ready to build an electric car in China – the country’s power grid is so dominated by dirty coal that recharging vehicles will release more global warming gases than putting petrol in their tanks, according to Juerg Gruetter of La Paz-based consultancy Gruetter Consulting.
Developers of projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), such as Gruetter, have to produce very detailed information about how many tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) each project will save, in order to earn carbon credits.
Following recent changes to the CDM methodology for electric vehicles, Gruetter is hoping to register four CDM projects in India, in collaboration with four electric scooter manufacturers. In total, about 1.5 million scooters will be sold over the next 10 years, which should save about 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e compared to running petrol-powered scooters. The 1.5 million carbon credits that can be claimed are worth €15 million ($21 million) at current prices, and the manufacturers are likely to use the income to build recharging infrastructure, Gruetter said.
The consultancy is also hoping to undertake similar projects in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.
But he said such projects are nigh-on impossible in China because the grid emissions are so high. There are regional differences, but the situation is “virtually nationwide” Gruetter said. Powering a scooter in China with grid electricity would emit about 20 grams of CO2e more per kilometre than running it on petrol.
“It’s worse for electric cars, in fact, as these tend to be less energy efficient – electric scooters are relatively much better than gasoline scooters while electric cars are relatively not that much better,” Gruetter said.
Gruetter Consulting has pioneered CDM projects in the transport sector, registering the TransMilenio rapid transit project in Bogotá, Columbia in 2006. The company is also working on a high-speed rail CDM project in South Korea.
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“Powering a scooter in China with grid electricity would emit about 20 grams of CO2e more per kilometre than running it on petrol.”
Some proponents of “new energy” (EVs) in both industry and government obviously will take issue with this figure. There’s no better time to take up the debate….
Consumers deserve to know.
The argument is false as power plant can not stop at night and that is reason why there is discount in electricity at night when most charging is happening.All in all the total pollution by power generation can’t be worse than gasoline burnt to power same number of cars to say the least
I sincerely doubt he’s remotely correct. China has increased hydro electricity generation dramatically in the past few years. In 2008, hydro was responsible for something like 563TWh – and China plans on nearly doubling hydro electricity production by 2020.
All one needs to do is to take a look at the AIR POLLUTION over there when factories are cranking. Right now China has permanently SHUT Down some plants & currently is RATIONING electricity in Major cities to keep the electricity grid intact without Brownouts all over the place. This was reported in the BBC (print) news Jun 20, 2011. Go Look at the REPORT if you think he is wrong. He is NOT WRONG. Coal dominates the electricity cheap supply in China now & for the next 10 years ..it will continue to be coal…not Hydro electric. From the article:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13835559
All one needs to do is to take a look at the AIR POLLUTION over there when factories are cranking. Right now China has permanently SHUT Down some plants & currently is RATIONING electricity in Major cities to keep the electricity grid intact without Brownouts all over the place. This was reported in the BBC (print) news Jun 20, 2011. Go Look at the REPORT if you think he is wrong. He is NOT WRONG. Coal dominates the electricity cheap supply in China now & for the next 10 years ..it will continue to be coal…not Hydro electric. From the article:”About 80% of the power produced for the electricity grid in China comes from coal-fired power stations. “