China, lead the world towards electric transportation

Workers fasten electric wires in a rural area in Chuzhou, Anhui province. China recently issued a reform plan aiming at encouraging competition and revamping the power pricing system. [Photo/China Daily]

Two events that happened in our small country, Israel, are relevant to the request to China to lead the world in electric transportation. Firstly, last year, during a religious holiday when most of the population was not driving, the concentration of nitrogen oxides in the air dropped by 90 to 95 percent in all our cities, including the most industrially polluted ones.

Our Ministry of the Environment concluded that transportation is the dominant factor in our city's air pollution problem. The second event is the rise and fall of a private company called "Better Place" that strove to replace all gasoline powered cars in Israel by fully electric cars.

In my opinion, the company failed due to the lack of government support, in particular the installation of charging stations and allocation of land for battery replacement stations. However, thanks to this company, affordable electric cars are driving around in our country, and everybody knows that electric cars are a viable alternative.

Without a doubt, China can lead the world towards all electric transportation, solving the unbearable worldwide problem of air pollution in large cities. If China just declares that it seriously intends to do this, oil prices will immediately drop to unprecedented low values, because oil is needed today mostly for transportation, for example 67% of oil usage in the US in 2004 was for transportation. Electricity is produced from natural gas, coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric plants. Just 2% of the electricity in the US was produced from oil in 2004.

If the Chinese electric car dream comes true, China will benefit economically and become the largest automotive supplier in the world. It will set the standards for charging, billing, and battery replacement. It will also become the dominant battery supplier in the world.

China can do it. It has a strong people, strong government, ingenious engineers, and a great track record of mass production of high quality products. Therefore, out of our small country, I would like to say " China, we are waiting, please change our lives for the better ! "

The passage is from Dan Ritter. He is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering located in Haifa, Israel.