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By Jordan Davidson
Electric vehicles will be the stars of the show when the Auto Shanghai 2019 expo opens Tuesday. China wanted cleaner air, reduced dependence on foreign oil and to be a pacesetter in a growing high-tech industry. So, it invested more than $60 billion in electric vehicles over the last decade and plans to keep that investment going over the next decade, according to Quartz.
The downside is the $18 billion electric vehicle industry in China is set to crash.
In 2018, sales of electric cars there outpaced the rest of the world combined. Yet, with more than 486 homegrown electric vehicle manufacturers vying for market share and in-flux of foreign companies ready to grab customers, concern is rising that too many manufacturers are churning out cars for nonexistent demand, according to Bloomberg. When the bubble bursts, only a few companies will survive.
"We are going to see great waves sweeping away sand in the EV industry,'' said Thomas Fang, a partner and strategy consultant at Roland Berger in Shanghai, as Bloomberg reported. "It is a critical moment that will decide life or death for EV startups.''
However, China's goal of having annual sales of 7 million new-energy vehicles by 2025 would barely sustain a few companies, not the hundreds currently in the industry, according to Bloomberg.
The massive growth potential drew investors not only from traditional car markers, but also from companies not known for building cars, such as internet startups, electronics companies and real-estate developers. Two dozen of those companies will show off their vehicles at the Shanghai auto show alongside Renault, Audi, Buick, Volkswagen and several other companies trying to make headway in the Chinese market, according to the automotive journal Overdrive.
"Only companies that have solid technology reserves can stand out amid competition,'" said Wang Chuanfu, founder and chairman of BYD, as reported by Bloomberg. "By owning core technologies, we can see further and deeper.''
The ones facing the biggest risk are the upstarts still seeking their footing. Many are founded or funded by people with an internet or technology background, used to hefty cash-burn rates but still not necessarily fully aware of the massive investment needed for car manufacturing, Roland Berger's Fang said, according to Bloomberg.
The dangers of creating oversupply were evident in March when an electric car "graveyard" was photographed on the outskirts of Hangzhou. Thousands of electric cars divided into three sections sit idle in the photographs. The cars belong to Microcity, a ride-sharing company. Yet ride-sharing companies, which have bought heavily into the electric vehicle market, have faced a tough road. Several folded in 2018 and the state media, CCTV, questioned not only the business model, but also whether the companies add to congestion by putting more cars on the road, according to Abacus News.
- Volkswagen Ups Its EV Production, Aims to Be Carbon Neutral by ... ›
- Tesla Unveils 2nd Mass-Market EV: The Model Y - EcoWatch ›
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By Raphael Tsavkko Garcia
Rarely has something so precious fallen into such unsafe hands. Since Jair Bolsonaro took the Brazilian presidency in 2019, the Amazon, which makes up 10 percent of our planet's biodiversity and absorbs an estimated 5 percent of global carbon emissions, has been hit with a record number of fires and unprecedented deforestation.
Microsoft announced ambitious new plans to become carbon negative by 2030 and then go one step further and remove by 2050 all the carbon it has emitted since the company was founded in 1975, according to a company press release.
Nestlé, the world's largest food company, said it will invest up to $2 billion to address the plastic waste crisis that it is largely responsible for.
Winter is upon us and so is the risk of vitamin D deficiency and infections. Vitamin D, which is made in our skin following sunlight exposure and also found in oily fish (mackerel, tuna and sardines), mushrooms and fortified dairy and nondairy substitutes, is essential for good health. Humans need vitamin D to keep healthy and to fight infections. The irony is that in winter, when people need vitamin D the most, most of us are not getting enough. So how much should we take? Should we take supplements? How do we get more? And, who needs it most?
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An expanse of uncommonly warm seawater in the Pacific Ocean created by a marine heatwave led to a mass die-off of one million seabirds, scientists have found.