• News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
  • News
  • Guides
  • Reviews
  • Media
  • About
Sign up Now (For Free)

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest automotive news in your inbox!

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thanks for subscribing!
News
Read Now
  • All News
  • Automakers
  • Automobiles
  • Auto Shows
  • Business
  • EVs & Environment
  • Guides
  • Lawsuits/Legal
  • Regulatory
  • Ride-Sharing
  • Safety & Recalls
  • Technology
Recent
  • The Rearview Mirror: A Sports Car from a Company You've Never Heard Of
  • Analysts Predict Declining Tesla Sales in Q3
  • Overlanding is the New Hotness
  • New Vehicle Sales Increase in September
  • Are EVs Affordable? Only if You’re a Luxury Buyer
  • Honda Takes Wraps Off New All-Electric Prologue
  • Mercedes to Offer True Self-Driving in Late 2023
  • Biden Meets UAW Picketers, Offers Support
  • Ford Halts $3.5B MI Battery Plant; Fain Slams Company
  • An Electric Acura NSX Could Be Coming
Editor’s Choice
    Reviews
    Read Now
    • All Reviews
      • Feeder
    • Classic Cars
    • Concept Cars
    • Convertibles
    • Coupes
    • Crossovers/CUVs
    • Diesel
    • Hot hatches
    • Hybrids
    • Luxury Vehicles
    • Minivans
    • Muscle Cars
    • Pickups
    • Sedans
    • Sports Cars
    • Super Cars
    • SUVs
    Recent Reviews
    • A Week With: 2024 Buick Encore GX Sport Touring AWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB 250+
    • A Week With: 2024 Mazda CX-90 Turbo S Premium Plus
    • A Week With: 2024 Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV
    • A Week With: The 2024 BMW i7 xDrive60
    • A Week With: 2024 Alfa Romeo Tonale Veloce AWD
    • A Week With: 2023 Toyota Camry XSE Hybrid
    • A Week With: 2024 Subaru Impreza RS
    • A Week With: 2023 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Desert Boss
    • First Drive: 2024 Polestar 2
    Editor’s Choice
      Guides
      Car Warranty
      • Endurance Warranty Reviews
      • BMW Extended Warranty
      • Extended Warranty For Cars Over 100k Miles
      • Extended Car Warranty Cost
      • Subaru Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Reviews
      • CarShield Cost
      • Aftermarket Car Warranty
      • CARCHEX Warranty Reviews
      • Reputable Extended Car Warranty Companies
      • Used Car Warranty Companies
      • Best Car Warranty
      • Is CarShield A Scam?
      • Mercedes Extended Warranty
      • CarShield Plans
      Insurance
      • How To Identify A Car Insurance Company
      • Geico Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • How Far Back Does A Car Insurance Company Look
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance For Used Cars
      • State Farm Mechanical Breakdown Insurance
      • Mechanical Breakdown Insurance From Progressive
      • Dollar A Day Insurance
      • Auto Insurance For SSI Recipients
      • Car Insurance Rates After A Suspended License
      • Auto Insurance For Salvage Vehicles
      • Average Cost of Dodge Ram 1500 Car Insurance
      • Car Insurance Florida
      • Full Coverage Auto Insurance
      • GrubHub Insurance
      • Amazon Delivery Auto Insurance
      Shipping
      • Car Shipping Companies
      • uShip Reviews
      • Auto Shipping From California To Hawaii
      • Montway Auto Transport Reviews
      • Cheap Car Shipping
      • Easy Auto Ship Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Miami
      • Auto Shipping To Alaska
      • Car Shipping Cost
      • Auto Shipping Hawaii
      • Auto Shipping Puerto Rico
      • Sherpa Auto Transport Reviews
      • Auto Shipping Atlanta
      • Auto Shipping Boston
      • Auto Shipping. Chicago
      About
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • Affiliate Disclosure
      • Sitemap
      TheDetroitBureau.com

      More than just “another” place to find news, reviews, spy shots, commentary, features, and guides about the auto industry. TheDetroitBureau doesn’t stop with the press releases or confuse a few lines of opinion with insightful, in-depth reporting.

      Contact Us

      Like what you see? Have some ideas for making The Detroit Bureau.com even better? Let us know, we’d love to hear your voice.

        Media
        Listen Now
        • Headlight News: All Episodes
        More from TheDetroitBureau
        • Guides
        • Latest News
        • Auto Reviews
        • Podcasts
        Headlight News

        TheDetroitBureau.com’s Headlight News offers a look at the past week’s top automotive news stories, as well as what’s coming up in the week ahead. Check out the week’s top story and our latest review…along with a dive into the past with this week in automotive history.

        home > news > Automobiles > China Ups Pressure for Automakers to Go Electric

        China Ups Pressure for Automakers to Go Electric

        But Beijing delays production quotas until 2019.

        Paul A. Eisenstein
        Paul A. Eisenstein , Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
        Oct. 02, 2017
        The smog that covers Beijing and other large cities in China now has regulators examining a plan to eliminate vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

        Faced with endemic smog problems in most of its major cities, China is ramping up pressure on the auto industry to switch to electric vehicles.

        While it has raised the target for a new zero-emissions vehicle program, it has also cut automakers a little slack by postponing the start of the new program until 2019. Nonetheless, the industry now has to adapt to the idea of building more and more battery-based vehicles for the world’s largest car market — and Beijing regulators are strongly hinting they’re preparing to announce new rules that would phase out the internal combustion engine entirely.

        Global Auto News!

        Critics of the plans warn that Chinese consumers may not accept the shift to electrified vehicles and also argue that without finding an alternative for the coal fired generators that dominate in most parts of China, the new mandates may simply shift the source of pollution from the tailpipe to the smokestack.

        But the threat of being locked out of the Chinese market, proponents note, already appears to be having a major impact on automotive planning. Since the beginning of the year, a growing number of manufacturers have announced plans to electrify their line-ups with hybrids, plug-ins and pure battery-electric vehicles. On Monday, General Motors, the second-largest automotive manufacturer in China, said it would launch 20 new BEVs by 2023, on its way to going completely battery-electric at some unspecified point in the near to mid-term future.

        Daimler AG is partnering with BAIC to ramp up its electric vehicle production in China, which is pushing for more "new energy vehicles."

        China’s auto industry has developed at an unprecedented rate, sales going from barely 1 million a year at the beginning of the millennium to more than 20 million in 2016. Some planners estimate demand could reach more than 30 million vehicles annually by the end of the coming decade.

        But automobiles are catching blame for a major share of the country’s endemic air pollution, especially in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Local governments have already taken steps aimed at addressing the problem. More than a dozen cities now limit the number of new vehicles that can be registered each month, and vehicle pollution standards have gone from minimal to European level during the past decade.

        Yet, few believe such steps can do more than slow the pace at which pollution worsens. That has led the Communist government in Beijing to take more radical action, starting with a planned phase-in of production quotas mandating the rollout of battery-electric vehicles.

        The revised plan will require that 10% of every automaker’s production use pure electric propulsion in 2019 – up from an earlier mandate of 8%. The figure will grow to 12% in 2020 The government plans to continue ratcheting up the number each year but has not yet released the targets for 2021 and beyond.

        In recent months, a number of global manufacturers – including Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, Ford and Nissan – have announced new partnerships with local Chinese brands aimed at producing new lines of battery-electric vehicles.

        (Daimler ties up to launch Chinese EV project. Click Herefor more.)

        GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said consumers in China will need government enticements to buy EVs in the numbers it wants.

        China is now the world’s largest market for electrified vehicles – including hybrids and more advanced, plug-based models – sales jumping 50% last year to 336,000, or more than double the roughly 160,000 such vehicles sold in the U.S. Nonetheless, that is still well short of what the new mandate would require in its first year, and industry officials are skeptical they can come close to meeting the target without government help.

        “While we are exploring all channels to boost NEV sales, building raw consumer acceptance of NEVs will depend on continued joint effort between the government and automakers,” General Motors CEO Mary Barra said last month.

        (Click Here for more on Barra’s comments.)

        The government has signaled it may take steps to ease the burden on the industry, especially foreign manufacturers, by lifting rules requiring international companies like GM and Daimler to partner with local Chinese companies when opening plants in the country. Those rules may be lifted on EV factories, according to comments from the Ministry of Commerce.

        The one-year delay was clearly intended to help the auto industry prepare for the big jump in production and sales, but whether it will prove to be enough time is uncertain.

        And automakers are still left waiting to find out whether – or, more likely, when – Chinese authorities will take the next step. They recently signaled that the country could ban entirely the sale of vehicles using any form of internal combustion power, including plug-in hybrids.

        If China moves that way it would follow Norway and India. Other countries, including the UK, France and Germany are now considering similar bans.

        (Will China ban the internal combustion engine? Click Here to find out.)

        How to Care for Your Car

        Cheap Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice

        Best Extended Car Warranty

        Editor's Choice
        Recently Published

        The Rearview Mirror: A Sports Car from a Company You’ve Never Heard Of

        Yesterday

        Analysts Predict Declining Tesla Sales in Q3

        Sept. 29, 2023

        Overlanding is the New Hotness

        Sept. 29, 2023

        2 responses to “China Ups Pressure for Automakers to Go Electric”

        1. Jim says:
          October 3, 2017 at 5:48 am

          The Chi-Coms are one-upping the Cal-Coms.

          Reply
          1. Paul A. Eisenstein says:
            October 3, 2017 at 10:18 am

            Their pollution is far worse.

            Reply

        Leave a Reply Cancel reply

        Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

        Share this article:
        © The Detroit Bureau 2023
        • Guides
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms of Use
        • Affiliate Disclosure
        • Contact Us
        • Sitemap
        Follow Us: