电动车逐步取代燃油车

To reduce carbon emissions in China, various measures have been adopted. One of them is the use of electricity in cars, home and industrial uses.

Extensive burning of fossil-fuels means the Chinese capital, Beijing, seldom sees blue skies. And it only gets worse in winter. In a bid to address this problem, the country is taking various approaches. That includes using electricity as a replacement. The electricity vehicle (EV) is one of them.

“This type of cars has clean energy, and spends only one yuan for about 4-kilometer drive. That’s at least half of the amount of the conventional cars,” said Zhai Chunxian, electric vehicle user.

But unlike going to a petrol station to refuel, EV users find it hard to charge their cars. To solve this problem, more charging poles are being built, and a smart center has just opened in Beijing, the country’s only for monitoring and providing EV charging services now. It helps locate the nearest and available poles instantly.

“Users will soon charge their cars within 1 kilometer in downtown, 3 kilometers in suburbs, and 5 kilometers in outer suburb areas. With the guiding system, things are getting easier,” said Wang Wen, deputy general director of China State Grid EV Service Company, Ltd.

In Beijing, as well as the electric vehicles, there are other power replacement programs going on. One example is the use of electricity to replace coal at home and in industry. Such efforts focus on the old and inefficient coal-burning facilities, like cooking, heating and manufacturing.

“Since 2003, we have had over 650,000 conversions in Beijing. In central Beijing, we can see no trace of coal-burning systems. And we are planning conversions,” said Long Guobiao, deputy director of China State Grid Beijing Marketing Dept.

This could save close to 2 million tons of standard coal each year. Besides these conversions, the State Grid is taking clean energy from wind, water and solar power from the central and western regions and transmitting it to eastern areas, including Beijing. These changes might not be so noticeable yet, but change is taking place.