Buffett’s BYD Threatened by Prius in China Hybrid Shift

I would hazard to say that the vast majority of Chinese who are in the situation of the intense smog are less interested in minor measures to reduce the pollution long-term and more interested in individually getting to the point where they can get the hell out of that situation.
I have one friend in that position now.
Everyone wants clean air.
Not everyone can afford it.
We are very lucky in the U.S. to have had the surplus of past decades to be able to improve our water and air quality.
We need to be circumspect before we assume that every society has the same economic privilege as we enjoy.

 

Who are we to tell them?

Let them choke if that's their choice.

The people will work it out sooner or later, though to be fair, I doubt it. People complain about the air quality in cities in the UK, yet 60% of cars sold are diesels. Even with the new cleaner diesels being sold, one new diesel emits the same Nox as 20 petrol cars.

The old hippie adage "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" rings so true.

 

That article was full of distortions. I don't quite get it. Why would the Chinese government give huge incentives targeted to a Japanese car maker. I thought Japanese cars did not sell well there. THe article includes at least part of that, Toyota only has a 5% market share. They don't give any statistics on prius sales in china, but this is the last I heard

Toyota Prius sales lag in China

They are not doing well. Has this changed? Toyota did not break out Chinese hybrid sales from 2012 figures.

As for byd not selling many EVs, well yes. I heard their EV was very bad. That doesn't mean the chinese are going to kill domestics and partnerships and subsidies the Japanese. I would expect any rules helping hybrids to be targeted in a way that helped domestics, not in ways that specifically helps toyota. That means they will still charge a tarrif for Toyota to import the hybrid parts from Japan.

When I first went to china the bulk of the polution was from high sulfur coal with no scrubbers. Getting people to buy japanese cars will not put scrubbers on those plants.

Update: Here is some more information of low prius sales in china
Lexus CT 200h outsells Toyota Prius in China! | Kaizen Factor

That is only 150/month. Not bad for the ct200 though

 

We have been reducing per capita electricity use in austin, of course population is growing, so we are building new power. California simply is not producing enough power, and importing it. If they built more natural gas ccgt they could import less coal based electricity and actually reduce fuel use and pollution, but policies keep companies from investing in natural gas infrastructure.

China uses only about half of the electicity per capita compared to california. I think the figure was 500 Chinese use about as much electricity as al gore. They need to build these plants cleaner and more efficient though.

I think carb's Mary Nichols dictating to the chinese would likely end with her deported or in prison Didn't california's deregulation/regulation cause massive blackout a little over a decade ago. They need to put some sound policies in place, but in a Chinese way. That means giving them inforation cheaply about how to clean up the environment, and how healthy people are more productive people.

 

China doesn't seem ready to attack pollution. Their biggest source appears to be coal-based electricity, so EV's won't make a significant dent in pollution.

If they create a nuclear, solar, or other (air)-clean energy strategy, then EV's might make sense. I think it's really a question of whether they decide that EV's are a future which they should invest in for the export market. If they feel they can dominate the battery and/or vehicle manufacturing sectors, then they will make the investments.

 

+1

I did read today that Toyota is setting up 2 joint ventures in china. These might get toyota's goal of selling hybrids in china, and china's goal of getting chinese companies with toyota's technology for export. I have no idea how successful they will be, but the chinese government is not going to do anything to help the prius with proprietary parts imported from japan.

 

Stringent New Fuel Economy Standards Imposed In China - HybridCars.com

 

You can't afford a Prius when you make $2 a day building iPhones. Lets get real here.