Comment on In China, It’s Already Cheaper to Buy EVs Than Gasoline Cars
1bluepixel@lemmy.world 1 year agoI was in China two months ago and the use of electric cars is honestly changing the feeling of big cities. Delivery motorcycles and service vehicles are all electric now, and with the number of electric cars on the road, streets are a lot quieter now barring the frequent honking. Less air pollution too.
What I love and Chinese electric car manufacturers is that they’ve fully embraced the cyberpunk aesthetic from the chassis design to the car sounds. Made me feel like I was walking around a cyberpunk movie set.
I just got back from a business trip to China also. The high proportion of EVs, particularly in the southern cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen really stood out to me, and many of them (particularly from BYD) looked really, really nice. They seemed less prominent in the more northern part of the country (e.g. Shenyang, Beijing), but even there I’d say they’re more common than in the UK.
It was a real eye opener
That was my experience as well. Very prevalent in Sichuan, but less so in Shanghai. Still, even in Shanghai, they were leagues ahead of Canada.
I mean, there’s only 35 million people in Canada, a country with a larger land mass than China. The charging infrastructure in Canada is pitiful.
There’s no excuse for the poor charging infrastructure in urban areas, especially along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor.
Would be interesting to see. The Chinese EVs being pushed on the market here (Europe) are the typical ugly huge American SUV style.
Yeah, American here. This isn’t a huge mystery. Electric cars here are expensive because people refuse to give up their giant vehicles. American culture is so gross…
Even small electric cars are expensive in America. The Kia ev6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6 are all quite “small” for American vehicles and they’re still 45k+
Shouldn’t it be the opposite? If demand is low, then prices should correspondingly be down until adoption increases.
Certainly the opposite is often used to just y increasing prices
No, what I’m saying is that American car makers aren’t producing small electric vehicles because Americans refuse to drive small cars, which makes the ridiculously large ones prohibitively expensive because the batteries have to be enormous.
The batteries on some of these SUV EVs weigh as much as a car. It’s pretty silly.
Do you have pictures? I would love to see.
I found this article from last year showing some interesting models. You’ll see the most popular EVs range from more classical designs to weird and retro-futuristic.
Some of them also make futuristic noises when they drive around… The noise isn’t needed at all because the motor is pretty much silent, so they’re added by manufacturers so you hear them coming. I swear they sound like something out of a '90s sci-fi flick.
Hope those are customizable. Can’t wait to load up the TIE Fighter engine sound.
What I love about Chinese electric car manufacturers is that they’ve fully embraced the cyberpunk aesthetic from the chassis design to the car sounds.
So, the Vaporwave color pallete?
Love this, thanks
I’d really like to see more of this. Do you know some of the names of these super cool manufacturers / designs?
Not the OP, but I live in China.
Check out for example the Xpeng (Xiao Peng) G6 and P7, the Qiantu K50, Zeekr 009, Lynk & Co. 03, Aiways U5 and the Dongfeng Mengshi M-Hero 917 (now if that’s not HALO inspired, I don’t know…).
Ah these are really cool, but I misread car and thought OP meant bikes. Americans will never be able to buy these sweet chinese cars.
Oh sorry forgot to mention the drivers. In my experience this is not true at all. People who have drivers are usually senior executives, and they’d have company cars. Typically some top of the line Mercedes or BMW, sometimes a Porsche SUV. Electric cars (even the fancier ones) are rather affordable, and people here are very focused on their external impression.
Ah, what he mentioned were e-bikes, but those are not really on the fancy side. Search for 饿了么 scooter or 美团 scooter. They do food and grocery deliveries mostly. For private use, Niu scooters are the most popular in terms of design, but a ton of cheap stuff exists. Couldn’t tell you about the brands, they are all very generic.
Electric motorbikes exist, but require a special license and are banned in most downtown areas, so they aren’t really common. One brand I’m aware of is called Dayi Motors, they recently got certified for the European market, so chances are that those would become available elsewhere as well.
That all sounds wonderful, but don’t forget that brake dust accounts for even more pollution than tailpipe emissions in many locations. And as electric cars are heavier, they generate more brake dust than their combustion counterparts. I’m all for the switch to EVs, personally, but I think even then we’ve still got work to do.
This brake dust problem is not true. Just another in a line of deceiving , sounds right but isn’t, attacks on EVs from the fossil fuel industry and their allies. forbes.com/…/electric-cars-are-as-green-as-you-th…
There is the tire problem, but 🤷♂️ That’s more of a “Americans want to buy giant things” problem, and the battery designs that are seemingly just around the corner are lighter
I mean… I drive my electric car like I stole it, which I wouldn’t really do with anything except a sports car. So the tire wear is definitely greater than if I did that in an ICE vehicle.
TIL!! I was snookered. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Electric cars use their brakes humongously less than ICE ones.
I imagine electric cars would generate less brake dust due to their use of regenerative braking.
What I love about Chinese electric car manufacturers is that they’ve fully embraced the cyberpunk aesthetic from the chassis design
I actually think Chinese EVs are quite ugly.
doublejay1999@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Cannot wait until EV replaces the noisy crotch rocket bikes .
markr@lemmy.world 1 year ago
There were already tons of ebikes on the streets when I was there in 2016. It was a bit of a problem as a pedestrian as they are super quiet and the practice is to drive those things pretty much without regard for any concept of pedestrian right of way. You learned to be ultra careful crossing any street.