When I visited China in 2015, every motorbike and scooter in Beijing was already electric.
If people are surprised that China is now dominating the market for decent, low cost electric cars, they haven't been paying attention.
It's the American car manufacturers who, once again, have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into innovation and doing the right thing.
@petergleick meanwhile, reality in China https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/ not only are these cars and scooters effective ewaste, but they’re basically running on coal. China permitted 2 new COAL plants every week last year. China is at best an example of what not to do if you give a single shit about the environment.
@petergleick We had Ralph Nader spinning up layers of bureaucratic regulation in the 1970s (before he was the "hanging chads" guy for the green party), but China didn't get its first road safety law until 2003.
The book "The Innovator's Dilemma" 25 years ago used golf carts' inability to displace gasoline-powered vehicles because of "street legal" regulation protecting established cartels as an example where disruptive technology is forced to take the "collapse" route.
@petergleick I've worked with hundreds of companies from fortune 500s to startups and the Big 3 were by far and away always the most arrogant. Not surprised at all to see them lagging behind once again.
@petergleick@lisamelton been reading a bunch of articles of late how Chinese electric automobile makers are doing very well with exports. Apparently Warren Buffet is an investor in one. Even the EU is now worried.
“In total, China has already overtaken Germany for overall global car exports, and will overtake Japan this year, becoming the world's top exporter…”
@petergleick but it’s hard to see how the requirements the UAW is trying to force on them will be at all helpful. Unionize battery manufacturers and increase their costs? It’s practically game over
@petergleick
they (car manufacturers) are not "kicking
and screaming" - they are in league with the
fossil fuel ⛽ industry and have been for
more than 75 years ✌️🚲
@petergleick People are surprised about China because they get so little information about China. Other than fear-generating papp in most media, there is little to nothing about China's incredible level of investment in people, infrastructure and technology. I suspect Western Govts don't want their populations to know that China's model of governance is far superior to the West (if a maximum quality of life for everyone is your aim). I wish more would do what you have done and go and see.
@RememberUsAlways@petergleick
Dumbya, the oil man's kid, decided to let the US export oil in exchange for political donations and oil company subsidies, so now we export almost as much oil as we import, which is insane. We should not be exporting ANY oil and we wouldn't need to import any either. The entire Shell game (har har) seems to be a senseless make-work operation to support the oil tanker industry and dock workers and see how much oil we can spill into the ocean.
The US began the transition to an #oil economy in the early 1900s. We gave the oil survey technology to the Arab nations and, well, here we are today.
The entire 20th century will be villianized as oil adventures driven by greed and the #unitedstates bears the majority share of responsibility for the #climatecrisis
@petergleick might make city air cleaner locally but overall is it actually better for the environment? Electric cars and bikes means you’re just displacing emissions from usage to manufacturing and mining, and in a grid with a lot of coal might be much worse than ICE in c02
@petergleick electric scooters and motorbikes can be very handy, and designed correct also useful for those who face mobility challenges. For most places it is a better way to live than cars. Sadly, though, the only home so many in America have now is living in a car.
True, when I visited Beijng and Suzhou in the last few years, I saw that there is no doubt that China is overtaking the West. Its just a matter of when…
@petergleick Cars need to be eliminated as much as possible, cycling needs to be made safe and friendly, and we need clean mass transit, but this is America, won't happen. I would love to be car free. There are probably about 12 other people here who feel the same way.
@petergleick There's probably also no ideological opposition to EV like you have in the west.
I recently joked that maybe if we simply added speakers that go "Vroooooooom", people would stop being such idiots?
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