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Massive subsidies helped catalyse the shift from diesel in the pollution-choked southern Chinese city
BY RACHEL CHEUNG
10 NOV 2017
MORE ON
THIS STORY
Hong Kong’s electric car market comes to emergency stop
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
Electric taxis prove a turn-off for most London cabbies living on the edge
Electric buses with air purifiers to help tackle smog in Beijing
Hong Kong’s electric car market comes to emergency stop
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
A cloud of diesel fumes envelops us as a bus pulls away from a stop on Dongzong Road, in Shenzhen’s Pingshan district. Nothing unusual about that, you may think – we are in one of the most polluted countries in the world, after all – but we are unlucky enough to be standing behind one of very few buses in the city that still run on diesel.
More than 14,000 electric buses ply the roads of Shenzhen and the several hundred remaining diesels are due to be phased out by the end of 2017. This puts Shenzhen ahead of not only Beijing, Hangzhou and Nanjing, but also Paris, Oslo and London, and will earn the city the distinction of becoming the first in the world to have an all-electric public bus fleet.
Electric buses with air purifiers to help tackle smog in Beijing
Although China is not alone in embracing electric vehicles in pursuit of a cleaner urban environment – France and Britain will end sales of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and Norway has set its target at 2025 – the country’s need is seen as all the more urgent because it has the world’s deadliest air pollution, according to the World Health Organisation, and is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Vehicles in China emitted 44.7 million tonnes of pollutants in 2016, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and going electric is seen as a fix. The power needed to drive an electric vehicle must still be generated, of course, but one major advantage of moving pollution from the exhaust pipe to the power plant is that it takes pollutants farther away from the general population, lowering the adverse health effects. Concentrated emissions are also easier to manage.
A BYD electric bus in Shenzhen. Electric buses are cheaper to maintain than diesel vehicles. Picture: Xiaomei Chen
BYD – the letters stand for “build your dreams” – manufactured 80 per cent of the electric buses in use in Shenzhen, the remainder having been built by other Chinese companies. On the streets of Pingshan, the suburb where BYD is headquartered, the bikes and cycle rickshaws running alongside the company’s gleaming electric buses make for a curious sight. Once aboard, a conductor takes our coins and hands us paper tickets, which only adds to the feeling of temporal dislocation.
BYD was one of the first manufacturers to propose all-electric bus fleets for China, in 2010. Having produced batteries since 1995, the company had, in 2003, branched out into new-energy vehicles (NEVs), a term Beijing uses to describe plug-in electric vehicles (battery only and hybrids).
“It was a bumpy ride in the early days as the technology was met with scepticism,” recalls Xiao Haiping, director of the BYD commercial vehicle sales division’s public relations department, speaking in his office within the Pingshan complex. The 1.8 million sq ft compound also contains laboratories, factories and employee dormitories.
BYD public relations director Xiao Haiping. Picture: Xiaomei Chen
BYD’s first electric bus, which was trialled in 2011, had four shelves holding large batteries, leaving little room for passengers. Other shortcomings included limited range and low speed.
A turning point came in 2014, when the authorities issued a list of policies to support the development of NEVs. In “Made In China 2025”, a 2015 plan to revamp the country’s manufacturing sector, NEVs were identified as one of 10 key sectors the government would throw its weight behind.
By last year, BYD had surpassed Tesla as the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles, exporting to more than 50 countries and 200 cities.
California dreamin’: how BYD’s US electric bus expansion smooths the road for Xi and Trump
In Hong Kong, Kowloon Motor Bus was experimenting with electric vehicles as long ago as 2010, but neither the operator nor the government has yet taken decisive steps towards establishing a significant electric fleet. By contrast, in late 2015, Shenzhen Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui gave his city’s three operators – Shenzhen Bus Group (SBG), Shenzhen Eastern Bus Company and Shenzhen Western Bus Company – a deadline: three years in which to establish all-electric fleets.
“The decision was a source of both pressure and motivation,” says SBG’s executive vice-director Ji Chilong in his office on the 21st floor of its Futian headquarters. Among the titles on his shelves are several copies of a book interpreting ancient philosophical wisdom, authored by Ji himself. “Part of our fleet at the time was poorly maintained and could not be replaced because we lacked the funds. [The push for an electric fleet and the subsequent subsidies] presented an opportunity for us to renew our entire fleet of 5,300 buses.”
Shenzhen's municipal government building in Futian. Picture: Roy Issa
SBG completed the switch in June, beating the deadline by more than a year. Scrapping diesel buses, the operator estimates, will have cut exhaust-pipe carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000 tonnes per year and other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, by 2,000 tonnes.
As the technology matures, most of the performance shortcomings seen in earlier models of electric buses have been overcome, yet two problems remain: the vehicles are expensive and they require an extensive network of charging stations.
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
Funding is less of an issue for the second largest economy in the world than it is for other countries. And, as well as investing billions in research and development, the mainland authorities have backed the electric roll-out with generous subsidies, beginning with the batteries, which can account for up to 40 per cent of the production costs of an electric vehicle.
Even after that, SBG estimates, an electric bus would cost 1.8 million yuan (HK$2.1 million) – compared with 500,000 yuan for a diesel version – if the Shenzhen and central governments hadn’t agreed to each give a subsidy of 500,000 yuan per vehicle. And SBG negotiated a deal that allows it to pay its share for the buses in instalments, over eight years, so the company does not have to fork out 4.56 billion yuan (it now operates 5,698 electric buses) in one go.
A BYD electric bus in Shenzhen. Eighty per cent of the electric buses in use in Shenzhen were manufactured by BYD. Picture: Xiaomei Chen
Another benefit of electric buses is that they are cheaper to maintain than diesel vehicles, and operators are given a subsidy of 420,000 yuan per 12-metre bus to help cover operating costs.
Charging infrastructure is a speed bump working against the introduction of electric buses in many cities, including Beijing, but the Shenzhen authorities once again opened the coffers, offering lavish grants to attract solution providers. According to some reports, the city already has as many as 277 charging stations and more than 28,000 charging piles (of various speeds), of which SBG rents 82 and 1,341, respectively, for its own use.
Beijing’s grand plan for electric cars: looks good, but under the bonnet ...
With the government providing the financial muscle, manufacturers and operators have used their imagination to promote electric buses. When questions were raised about passengers’ exposure to the batteries, BYD invited media to one of its laboratories, armed them with detectors and had them see for themselves that the electromagnetic radiation given off was within safety levels. Shenzhen Eastern Bus Company dressed 10 couples working for the operator in wedding dresses and tuxedos, and paraded them around the city on electric buses. “Mass wedding on electric buses, most romantic in history,” read the banner hanging on each vehicle. (One assumes something is lost in translation.)
BYD's acoustics test laboratory. Picture: Xiaomei Chen
Another benefit put forward by advocates is that electric buses are much quieter than those they are replacing. It is indeed possible to tell the types apart with our eyes closed while standing at the Dongzong Road bus stop – gone are not just the noxious fumes but also the distinctive clatter produced by an ageing diesel engine. But a staff member at BYD’s acoustics test laboratory – a large room lined with blue and silver foam in which the utter silence makes the uninitiated feel uneasy and claustrophobic – reveals that there is no more than a two decibel difference between the noise of a new electric engine and that of a new diesel one. “It’s not a difference you can tell by ear,” she says.
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-...y-shenzhen-set-have-first-all-electric-public
BY RACHEL CHEUNG
10 NOV 2017
MORE ON
THIS STORY
Hong Kong’s electric car market comes to emergency stop
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
Electric taxis prove a turn-off for most London cabbies living on the edge
Electric buses with air purifiers to help tackle smog in Beijing
Hong Kong’s electric car market comes to emergency stop
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
A cloud of diesel fumes envelops us as a bus pulls away from a stop on Dongzong Road, in Shenzhen’s Pingshan district. Nothing unusual about that, you may think – we are in one of the most polluted countries in the world, after all – but we are unlucky enough to be standing behind one of very few buses in the city that still run on diesel.
More than 14,000 electric buses ply the roads of Shenzhen and the several hundred remaining diesels are due to be phased out by the end of 2017. This puts Shenzhen ahead of not only Beijing, Hangzhou and Nanjing, but also Paris, Oslo and London, and will earn the city the distinction of becoming the first in the world to have an all-electric public bus fleet.
Electric buses with air purifiers to help tackle smog in Beijing
Although China is not alone in embracing electric vehicles in pursuit of a cleaner urban environment – France and Britain will end sales of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and Norway has set its target at 2025 – the country’s need is seen as all the more urgent because it has the world’s deadliest air pollution, according to the World Health Organisation, and is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Vehicles in China emitted 44.7 million tonnes of pollutants in 2016, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and going electric is seen as a fix. The power needed to drive an electric vehicle must still be generated, of course, but one major advantage of moving pollution from the exhaust pipe to the power plant is that it takes pollutants farther away from the general population, lowering the adverse health effects. Concentrated emissions are also easier to manage.
A BYD electric bus in Shenzhen. Electric buses are cheaper to maintain than diesel vehicles. Picture: Xiaomei ChenBYD – the letters stand for “build your dreams” – manufactured 80 per cent of the electric buses in use in Shenzhen, the remainder having been built by other Chinese companies. On the streets of Pingshan, the suburb where BYD is headquartered, the bikes and cycle rickshaws running alongside the company’s gleaming electric buses make for a curious sight. Once aboard, a conductor takes our coins and hands us paper tickets, which only adds to the feeling of temporal dislocation.
BYD was one of the first manufacturers to propose all-electric bus fleets for China, in 2010. Having produced batteries since 1995, the company had, in 2003, branched out into new-energy vehicles (NEVs), a term Beijing uses to describe plug-in electric vehicles (battery only and hybrids).
“It was a bumpy ride in the early days as the technology was met with scepticism,” recalls Xiao Haiping, director of the BYD commercial vehicle sales division’s public relations department, speaking in his office within the Pingshan complex. The 1.8 million sq ft compound also contains laboratories, factories and employee dormitories.
BYD public relations director Xiao Haiping. Picture: Xiaomei ChenBYD’s first electric bus, which was trialled in 2011, had four shelves holding large batteries, leaving little room for passengers. Other shortcomings included limited range and low speed.
A turning point came in 2014, when the authorities issued a list of policies to support the development of NEVs. In “Made In China 2025”, a 2015 plan to revamp the country’s manufacturing sector, NEVs were identified as one of 10 key sectors the government would throw its weight behind.
By last year, BYD had surpassed Tesla as the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles, exporting to more than 50 countries and 200 cities.
California dreamin’: how BYD’s US electric bus expansion smooths the road for Xi and Trump
In Hong Kong, Kowloon Motor Bus was experimenting with electric vehicles as long ago as 2010, but neither the operator nor the government has yet taken decisive steps towards establishing a significant electric fleet. By contrast, in late 2015, Shenzhen Communist Party chief Ma Xingrui gave his city’s three operators – Shenzhen Bus Group (SBG), Shenzhen Eastern Bus Company and Shenzhen Western Bus Company – a deadline: three years in which to establish all-electric fleets.
“The decision was a source of both pressure and motivation,” says SBG’s executive vice-director Ji Chilong in his office on the 21st floor of its Futian headquarters. Among the titles on his shelves are several copies of a book interpreting ancient philosophical wisdom, authored by Ji himself. “Part of our fleet at the time was poorly maintained and could not be replaced because we lacked the funds. [The push for an electric fleet and the subsequent subsidies] presented an opportunity for us to renew our entire fleet of 5,300 buses.”
SBG completed the switch in June, beating the deadline by more than a year. Scrapping diesel buses, the operator estimates, will have cut exhaust-pipe carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000 tonnes per year and other pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, by 2,000 tonnes.
As the technology matures, most of the performance shortcomings seen in earlier models of electric buses have been overcome, yet two problems remain: the vehicles are expensive and they require an extensive network of charging stations.
Hong Kong electric buses pulled from the road for third time in nine months
Funding is less of an issue for the second largest economy in the world than it is for other countries. And, as well as investing billions in research and development, the mainland authorities have backed the electric roll-out with generous subsidies, beginning with the batteries, which can account for up to 40 per cent of the production costs of an electric vehicle.
Even after that, SBG estimates, an electric bus would cost 1.8 million yuan (HK$2.1 million) – compared with 500,000 yuan for a diesel version – if the Shenzhen and central governments hadn’t agreed to each give a subsidy of 500,000 yuan per vehicle. And SBG negotiated a deal that allows it to pay its share for the buses in instalments, over eight years, so the company does not have to fork out 4.56 billion yuan (it now operates 5,698 electric buses) in one go.
Another benefit of electric buses is that they are cheaper to maintain than diesel vehicles, and operators are given a subsidy of 420,000 yuan per 12-metre bus to help cover operating costs.
Charging infrastructure is a speed bump working against the introduction of electric buses in many cities, including Beijing, but the Shenzhen authorities once again opened the coffers, offering lavish grants to attract solution providers. According to some reports, the city already has as many as 277 charging stations and more than 28,000 charging piles (of various speeds), of which SBG rents 82 and 1,341, respectively, for its own use.
Beijing’s grand plan for electric cars: looks good, but under the bonnet ...
With the government providing the financial muscle, manufacturers and operators have used their imagination to promote electric buses. When questions were raised about passengers’ exposure to the batteries, BYD invited media to one of its laboratories, armed them with detectors and had them see for themselves that the electromagnetic radiation given off was within safety levels. Shenzhen Eastern Bus Company dressed 10 couples working for the operator in wedding dresses and tuxedos, and paraded them around the city on electric buses. “Mass wedding on electric buses, most romantic in history,” read the banner hanging on each vehicle. (One assumes something is lost in translation.)
BYD's acoustics test laboratory. Picture: Xiaomei ChenAnother benefit put forward by advocates is that electric buses are much quieter than those they are replacing. It is indeed possible to tell the types apart with our eyes closed while standing at the Dongzong Road bus stop – gone are not just the noxious fumes but also the distinctive clatter produced by an ageing diesel engine. But a staff member at BYD’s acoustics test laboratory – a large room lined with blue and silver foam in which the utter silence makes the uninitiated feel uneasy and claustrophobic – reveals that there is no more than a two decibel difference between the noise of a new electric engine and that of a new diesel one. “It’s not a difference you can tell by ear,” she says.
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-...y-shenzhen-set-have-first-all-electric-public
