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China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

bloomberg.com

101–110 of 270 posts

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#101

This points out a new opportunity. Why stop at China for electric busses (yes they are probably manufacturing them locally)? Cities are seeming increasingly more able to be proactive than countries. Encourage local cities to one by one electrify the bus network and this effect goes global. It’s obvious tangible action that citizens can demand and mayors can visibly deliver. Game for those playing at home, do a search…

The opposite is occurring in places like Seattle. The overhead electric trolley lines are coming down as batteries become good enough to support electric buses without the PITA of going off line (electric was already needed for many routes in Seattle because of hills).

Electric also makes more sense in Seattle because 70% of its electrify comes from hydro.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#103

This points out a new opportunity. Why stop at China for electric busses (yes they are probably manufacturing them locally)? Cities are seeming increasingly more able to be proactive than countries. Encourage local cities to one by one electrify the bus network and this effect goes global. It’s obvious tangible action that citizens can demand and mayors can visibly deliver. Game for those playing at home, do a search…

Initial indicators seem to be that they're not ready for prime time. Albuquerque returned BYD buses because of problems with range not performing as advertised. https://www.abqjournal.com/1246094/abq-rejecting-all-byd-art... Battery-electrics still have major issues with range; buses cannot last a full day on a single charge, and midday charging takes too long. And if it gets cold or the route has hills, you're compl…

Hills are the primary use case for electric buses already (electric has much better torque), and have been for a very long time. The only thing is now instead of using overhead lines, batteries can be used instead.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how does that 3% compare to the total CO2 from personal vehicles?

"Road transport" was 16.5% of global emissions in 2008: https://www.who.int/sustainable-development/transport/health...

Road transport includes all transportation on roads, which isn't passenger vehicles. Passenger vehicles are less than half of that and growth of the CO2 emissions from passenger vehicles is nearly flat year over year. The maritime shipping sector, on the other hand, is growing emissions output as much as 75% every 15 years.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so far, more than 66 billion trees have been planted That’s...a hell of a lot of trees. The article mentions that a lot die without human intervention, which is pretty unfortunate. Makes you wonder if there’s a more surefire way to prevent deserts from expanding...if there is, it seems like China has the will to do it.

Well, at the start they'll die without human intervention, sure. But wait for 30yrs, let the land be revived and let nature take her course. I am pretty sure that we'll see lush green forest near the Gobi desert and the desert might also be pushed back. I dislike the dictatorship in China but this effort is unparalleled.

Trees don’t make water come on it’s own. A lot of the planting is intrinsically unsustainable.

That is the problem with top down authoritarian directives, execution is lacking. Follow through is lacking as the government declares success after they sign the order and then forget about it after patting themselves on the back.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#106
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has lost several, as have the Soviets and Russians.

92 lost nuclear warheads including one near Seattle/Vancouver, one near New York and one near Miami ( https://genecurtis.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/lost-nuclear-bom... )

Just for clarification its not anywhere near Miami (that is a small map graphic). It is right off the coast of Savannah, GA. There have been numerous books written about it and there is a wikipedia page about it.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#107
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is actually way closer to possible than I thought it would be. Of course, that stil only lets you run under power during the day!

Assuming OP’s numbers are right, it’s actually a factor of 50, not 10. Somewhat less close to possible.

If you cover your ship in solar panels and can save 2% of energy costs, it would mean a huge win nevertheless, as oil is expensive.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#108
post #45

Excuse me for this tangent, but when it comes to environmental concerns, why do we still skirt around the largest elephant in the room? Curbing population growth. We have laws against almost every "natural human instinct/desire": X Murder X Rape X Theft, even if you're stealing food when you're starving X Taking shelter in property that you don't own, even if you were freezing to death X In some countries: Being with…

Rape or murder are not natural instincts. In fact people have pretty good safeguards against killing others - seeing the oponent bleeding usually makes even a furious man cool off. And regarding limiting population growth, what solution could possible be there that would be acceptable in a liberal democracy (i.e. does not require authoritarian regime controlling your every move, or the biggest genocide in history of…

It is generally thought that increasing women's education level is the most effective route to reducing population growth...

This is because educated women choose to have fewer kids later.

Luckily this solution is not only effective but is also very much acceptable in a liberal democracy!

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you confident they are onboard with limiting CO2 emissions when they are currently looking the other way at rising CFC emissions which are far more harmful.

It looks like it's just 18 companies, and the profit is not big enough for China to protect them instead of playing by the rules. CO2 is a much harder case because of the pervasive oil lobby.

I'll keep pointing out that everyone everywhere hates the strings that come attached to oil dependence. That is except for the US neocon establishment and the countries economically dependent on oil cartels. AKA Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

In ten years the world is going to look a lot different geopolitcially.

Re: China's e-buses dent oil demand more than electric cars do

#110
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've sometimes been concerned that headline writing is (metaphorically) subcontracted to buzzfeed everywhere, NYT, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, just about everywhere.

Recently (thanks to a post on HN) I’ve discovered the Financial Times to be a mature news source that doesn’t generally go in for clickbait.

Reuters as well.
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