In December, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt met with Eric Li, founder of Geely, the Chinese car manufacturer that owns Volvo and Lotus. .
The content of the meeting has not been released, but the fact that it took place is a testament to how important China has become to the UK auto industry.
British dealers are welcoming a host of new car brands from the country as it prepares its EV industry to export more vehicles, undermining competition.
In turn, Tesla and Ford are slashing electric vehicle (EV) prices in anticipation of competition from China, where brands like BYD and Ora could outperform their Western rivals for a variety of reasons, including cheaper electricity and labor. Shares of mass-market electric vehicle pioneer Elon Musk plummeted earlier this week after his own price cuts ate into the company's profits. cheap EVs from China could be far less environmentally friendly before their new owners even get behind the wheel.
Shipping millions of tons of cars thousands of miles and using coal-intensive electricity to generate them has challenged their environmental friendliness. It also fuels social media skepticism about whether buying an electric car is a smart choice.
Freight statistics show that all is well. The International Chamber of Shipping claims that shipping is the least environmentally harmful mode of commercial transport per tonne, with the largest container ships able to emit just three grams of CO2 per tonne of cargo per kilometer traveled.
2204 The cost of carbon
This means that a 2-ton electric car sent from China to the UK over a distance of 20,000 km emits only 120 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
At the same time, a gasoline car emits about 4.6 tons of CO2 in year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), assuming a car travels 22 mpg and 11,500 miles each year, suggesting that shipping represents a small fraction of a car's carbon footprint.
The EPA study also shows that gasoline vehicles pollute the environment more than twice as much as battery-powered vehicles. This takes into account US electricity generation, which relies heavily on fossil fuels like the UK, as well as factors such as pollution and vehicle recycling.
Figures in the UK are hard to come by, but in the US a 2021 Reuters analysis found that a Tesla Model 3 driver had to drive 13,500 miles before the purchase was better on carbon emissions than a comparable petrol car, in this case a Toyota. Corolla.
0804 Car running costs
This is the best-case scenario: countries with mostly coal-based energy production, such as China and Poland, would need to be driven over 78,700 miles to reap any environmental benefits .
Analysts at the Australian bank ANZ Group have warned that China is likely to have to burn more coal, in part due to increased demand for electricity for electric vehicles, but also due to droughts that shut down hydroelectric plants.
But even when recharging from a fossil-fuel grid, electric vehicles benefit from the same efficiency gains as hybrid models, where braking helps recharge the battery, and stop-and-go driving is battery-powered, and not from inefficient combustion. at low speeds.
However, these numbers are all moving targets, says Andrew Graves, an automotive industry veteran and professor at the University of Bath.
While the electric power industry is getting greener every year, so is China's industry. While Chinese steelmakers used to emit 4.5 tonnes of carbon for every tonne of steel produced, today the figure is closer to 2.5 tonnes, compared to 1.5 tonnes in the UK, steel industry sources say.
Record exports to 2004
They are also heavily owned and controlled by the state, which offers some other benefits, the sources added. They suggested that while British steelmakers contribute £125m in carbon taxes, Chinese steelmakers probably don't. Such economic distortions could make Chinese electric vehicles artificially cheap.
Manufacturers also have to import lithium to make batteries, which are mostly mined thousands of miles away in Australia and Chile. To support the electrification of automobiles and heavy industry, millions of tons of copper are also supplied from Chile, Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The impact of transporting this metal, which is transported by diesel trains to the coast and then transported by ship, according to Professor Graves, , burning low-quality oil, is not taken into account when calculating carbon dioxide emissions.
Trying to find comparable numbers. for the production and use of automobiles is “where the madness lies,” says Professor Graves, but adds: “It is absolutely clear that the longer the supply chain, the worse for the environment.”
The modern automotive industry includes components that cross multiple boundaries as specialized suppliers create modules and send them off for final assembly. This complex ecosystem is cheaper to operate but more carbon intensive due to the amount of parts moving between countries. As carbon accounting becomes the norm, it will make much less sense.
Professor Graves was part of a research team that championed the concept of a «car for three days» when a customer orders a car. on Monday it is made on Tuesday and delivered on Wednesday.
Making cars locally reduces the cost of managing long supply chains and makes it easier to recycle them, he says. It also cuts down on energy wastage as vehicles and their components move around the world.
But in the 20 years since Professor Graves and his team came up with the idea, little has changed. “We really need to take a sensible pill and think about building closer to the customer, not just for environmental reasons, but also for branding reasons and giving the customer the car they want, when they want it,” he says. «We are currently moving away from that.»
The British auto industry has advantages, not least the abundant wind power that Britain can use like an island.
Last month, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported that the UK ranks seventh among the top 20 automotive nations for green electricity, ahead of Germany, with China and India in last place.
< p>A UK lobby group has suggested that as new wind farms are built, it could move up the rankings.
Mike Hawes, chief executive of SMMT, said building cars closer to where they are sold «could have significant benefits», including reduce environmental impact and reduce costs.
0604 Electric Cars
“To capitalize on these strengths and keep the UK at the forefront of the race to zero, we need to ensure we are globally competitive in every way, with a focus on reducing the current high cost of energy in the UK. ”, he added.
Simpler and lighter vehicles are also needed, according to Professor Graves. The weight of the average car in the UK has roughly doubled in the last 50 years, making them less efficient. While the 500kg battery packs are partly to blame, the move from compact family cars to tech-packed SUVs is also an important factor.
However, there are reasons for optimism. Professor Graves notes that power generation and steel production will become greener and cheaper as more people learn about them, much like they did in the early days of gasoline cars and power generation.
Battery technology is also improving, becoming lighter and therefore more efficient, and switching from lithium to sodium, which are much more abundant, should reduce their carbon footprint.
But British carmakers and The UK as a whole must take advantage of these advantages to avoid losing out to state-subsidized competitors, Prof Graves warns. It could mean taking Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's derided pursuit of arithmetic seriously.
«Talking about math and science and how important they are is absolutely correct,» Professor Graves says.
“Automotive is a high-paying job in high-yield sectors. And at the moment we are moving in a different direction.”
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