1 Apr 2014
Will Electric Cars save the capital of China?
Beijing, the capital of China, reaches the “orange level” of air pollution measured by the World Health Organization. In many cities, the toxic smog caused by economic developments is now dangerous for people to live. Daily routines are seriously affected, people are covered with gas masks and schools have to build “air purified indoor gyms”. One of the major air pollution sources is vehicle emission, and there are more than five million cars sharing the jammed roads in Beijing. Reducing vehicle emission must be put into action by the government in order to reduce the smog, which means decreasing the volume of operating vehicles, or increasing the usage of electric vehicles.
Luckily, we now have electric vehicles manufactures in mass production. One of them is Tesla Automotive from USA and the other one is BYD from mainland China. Compare to traditional gasoline vehicles, electric cars have Zero emission (without considering the generation of electricity), and higher energy conversion rate. Would the government of China save its capital by enforcing the use of electric cars? Or will China continue the path of London and Los Angeles’s smog disasters that happened during the 20th century?
Bottom Line: Electric cars will reduce the smog in Beijing
* These guest posts are from students in my resource economics class at Simon Fraser University. Please leave feedback on their logic, ideas and style and suggestions of how to improve.
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