China to Ban Sale of Fossil Fuel Cars in Electric Vehicle Push.

[CK_John]

They are working on setting a date. Reality is just around the corner.

China will set a deadline for automakers to end sales of fossil-fuel powered vehicles, a move aimed at pushing companies to speed efforts in developing electric vehicles for the world’s biggest auto market.

Xin Guobin, the vice minister of industry and information technology, said the government is working with other regulators on a timetable to end production and sales. The move will have a profound impact on the environment and growth of China’s auto industry, Xin said at an auto forum in Tianjin on Saturday.

A ban on combustion-engine vehicles will help push both local and global automakers to shift toward electric vehicles, a carrot-and-stick approach that could boost sales of energy-efficient cars and trucks and reduce air pollution while serving the strategic goal of cutting oil imports. The government offers generous subsidies to makers of new-energy vehicles. It also plans to require automakers to earn enough credits or buy them from competitors with a surplus under a new cap-and-trade program for fuel economy and emissions.

Honda Motor Co. will launch an electric car for the China market in 2018, China Chief Operating Officer Yasuhide Mizuno said at the same forum. The Japanese carmaker is
developing the vehicle with Chinese joint ventures of Guangqi Honda Automobile Co. and Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co. and will create a new brand with them, he said.


Read More:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-09/china-to-ban-sale-of-fossil-fuel-cars-in-electric-vehicle-push

[Not Ruth]

1. Interesting choice given how big a market China is for exclusive brands like Ferrari, which use gas

Ban vs limit imports

[ellie]

2. Uh oh.

The fossil humpers won't like this one bit.

[Calculating]

3. We still need better battery tech

There's not enough obtainable lithium in the world to convert our major fleets fully over to electric. If we could just find a 'holy grail' of battery tech then there would be no need for governments to force electric cars upon us. They would simply become the natural choice. This whole "let's combine thousands of laptop batteries into a car" idea doesn't seem very ideal to me.

[CK_John]

4. It's a nice way of saying get use to it.