The European Commission says China hasn’t been playing fair in that its government has been paying subsidies through “direct transfer of funds,” among other actions, reports Reuters – which the EC says tips the balance in China’s favor and leaves European automakers out to dry.
Back in October 2023, Europe launched its formal investigation into the Chinese EV industry, as European companies are struggling to compete with the cheap, high-tech Chinese imports, made by low-cost labor, entering the European Union.
China actually doing something about the climate crisis, and they actively get in the way. Shows how far our govs will go to prevent us from fixing this world.
@Nora
As the world’s largest electricity producer with around 30% of global output, China still heavily depends on cheap coal. What happens in China is everything but ecological so far, unfortunately, very much as in the West.
That aside, Chinese cars are cheap not in the least through the use of forced labour in Xinjiang. It’s a serious human rights problem, too.
I thought the forced labour was in the aluminium itself? Which is a far bigger problem because it’s embedded deep in the supply chain. So everything from your kitchen foil to your Polestar EV will be affected.
As for their domestic electricity, yes they have a lot of coal. They also have a lot, and very very rapidly increasing amounts of solar. Last year (if you fully believe their figures) they added 216.9 GW of solar capacity in comparison the USA added 35.3 GW.
A lot of electricity is still made with fossil fuels and new cars (even electric) are worse for the environment than buying used
On top of that China is trying to get rid of competition with subsidies
It’s not as black and white as you think
The rest are fine arguments, but this one:
is bad for several reasons:
Great point, thanks for adding!
We are in the middle of a climate crisis where every year of inaction dooms countless to death or at the very least catastrophically reduced quality of life.
It is absolutely one of the few things that is actually black and white.
Is China playing unfair? Yes, but it really doesn’t matter at this point, they are making more EVs and the correct response at this point is just to do the same.
We are in an emergency, act accordingly.
I’d argue the correct response is to make more electric buses and other forms of mass transport. Then incentivise the use of public transport (and or self powered transport) and discourage the use of private transport entirely.
Absolutely, no disagreement there, especially in the US bus systems are our best hope in many respects (honestly even fossil fuel burning busses have to be orders of magnitude better for the environment than everyone driving EV cars) but if the choice is between EV cars and gas cars the choice is clear.
@dumpsterlid
Slavery or forced labour, which is arguably a major economic driver for EV in China, is not the solution. We don’t act accordingly if we allow something like that.
By this logic buying any modern electronic devices or tools is not acting accordingly.
Also, I’m sorry I just don’t buy that this has anything to do with giving a shit about Chinese workers, it’s about portraying China as the Big Bad .
@dumpsterlid
This is largely true, and it is largely true because a lot of modern electronic devices -or at least some of their parts- are ‘Made in China’.
Europe must urgently work to gain back its production capabilities and force out any unfair competition, whoever this is or will be.