The European Commission says China hasn’t been playing fair in that its government has been paying subsidies through “direct transfer of funds,” among other actions, reports Reuters – which the EC says tips the balance in China’s favor and leaves European automakers out to dry.
Back in October 2023, Europe launched its formal investigation into the Chinese EV industry, as European companies are struggling to compete with the cheap, high-tech Chinese imports, made by low-cost labor, entering the European Union.
@Nora
As the world’s largest electricity producer with around 30% of global output, China still heavily depends on cheap coal. What happens in China is everything but ecological so far, unfortunately, very much as in the West.
That aside, Chinese cars are cheap not in the least through the use of forced labour in Xinjiang. It’s a serious human rights problem, too.
I thought the forced labour was in the aluminium itself? Which is a far bigger problem because it’s embedded deep in the supply chain. So everything from your kitchen foil to your Polestar EV will be affected.
As for their domestic electricity, yes they have a lot of coal. They also have a lot, and very very rapidly increasing amounts of solar. Last year (if you fully believe their figures) they added 216.9 GW of solar capacity in comparison the USA added 35.3 GW.
I believe their figures. They have been reported by the west as well I believe and satellites exist.
It’s very much in china’s interest to build that many solar panels.
China is also the only country that has really looked at this solar explosion and done something about it. Every other country just makes really shit reports and talks about how fossil fuels are so vital to everything. Literally it just seems like Tony Seba and the CCP have been the only ones I know of to accurately predict the growth of solar.