After reading this article, you will also want to buy an electric driven car. A petrol/diesel engine has 200 moving parts and an electric car has only 20 moving parts. As a result, it is cheaper to manufacture and maintain. Moreover, it produces less pollution. If you google Alibaba to buy electric cars, you can buy this electric car for 4 persons for US$ 3,000 each and for 10 units at US$ 2,500 each.
As far as I can remember, I have always been interested in cars, especially fast cars. When I started work as a PWD engineer, currently known as JKR in 1957, I bought a second hand Hillman Minx 1950 model. Later when I had more money, I bought a new Volkswagen for Rm 5,000. At that time, my monthly salary was only Rm 760.
About 50 years ago when I toured Germany, I bought a Mercedes sport car from Stuttgart, Germany. In 1985 when fuel injection was first incorporated in the new model BMW 323i, I ordered one and took delivery from BMW HQ in Munich, Germany and toured Europe. During that period, I also had a Porsche.
Currently, I have a Rolls Royce, a BMW 625, a BMW 520i and a Volkswagen Golf.
Why my next car will an electric sports car?
The electric vehicle revolution is coming sooner than I think. My research on EVs, dating back a decade, convinces me that this global transformation in mobility, from petroleum-fuelled vehicles to electric ones, will come sooner than later. The shift is already happening in China, which is the world’s largest automobile market, with 23 million cars sold in 2018.
A key element of an electric vehicle’s price is the cost of its batteries – and China already makes more than half of the world’s electric vehicle batteries. Battery prices continue to fall; industry analysts now suggest that within five years it will be cheaper to buy an electric car than a gas- or diesel-powered one.
Forecasts predict the Chinese producing as much as 70% of the world’s electric vehicle batteries by 2021, even as the demand for electric car batteries grows.
Huge government backing
China has a fledgling, but ambitious, automobile industry. It has never been able to match the efficiency and quality of established automakers at making gas-powered vehicles, but electric vehicles are easier to build, giving Chinese firms a new opportunity to compete.
The Chinese government, therefore, has chosen to highlight electric vehicles as one of 10 commercial sectors central to its “Made in China” effort to boost advanced industrial technology. Government efforts include using billions of dollars to subsidize manufacturing of electric vehicles and batteries, and encouraging businesses and consumers to buy them.
The government is also aware that electric vehicles could help solve some of China’s most pressing energy and environmental concerns: Massive air pollution chokes its major cities, national security officials are worried about how much oil the country imports and China is now the nation contributing most to global climate change emissions.
Warren Buffett owns 25% of BYD
A major player is BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams,” headquartered in Shenzhen. More than a decade ago, billionaire investor Warren Buffett bought about a quarter of the company for US$232 million – a share that is now worth more than $1.5 billion.
The company’s initial plans to export vehicles to the U.S. proved premature and fizzled. BYD instead started to focus mainly on the Chinese auto market, as well as building electric buses for the global market, which it now dominates.
If BYD’s electric car plans falter, though, there are plenty of other Chinese firms ready to pick up the slack.
Further support
In addition to the government subsidies to ensure BYD and its competitors have lots of customers, new government regulations are kicking in. The Chinese government now requires all automakers who sell in China, whether domestic or foreign firms, to make a certain percentage of their sales electric, through a complex crediting formula. The mandate will get stricter over time, perhaps requiring each company to make at least 7% of their sales electric by 2025.
Major foreign car companies have large investments in China and can hardly afford to abandon the market. Volkswagen, for example, now sells 40% of its output in China, which is a main reason the company is pushing hard to develop electric vehicles.
China’s domestic automakers have largely not yet engaged in the export market. Electric vehicle industry analyst Jose Pontes says there are three reasons for their reluctance: First, the Chinese market is big enough to absorb their current production. Second, many car companies in China are utterly unknown in the West, so customers would be wary of buying from a strange brand. And third, their cars do not yet comply with strict safety regulations in the U.S. and Europe.
However, all of those obstacles can be overcome with time and money. It’s possible Chinese electric car companies could enter the low- to middle-income market in the West, as Volkswagen did 60 years ago.
If – or when – that happens, inexpensive, efficient electric cars may spread through the West from China, surpassing Tesla and other American and European electric vehicle efforts. Only Western government attempts to protect domestic automakers with tariffs and other trade barriers could derail this development.
Some Very Interesting Predictions in view of electric vehicles
1-Auto repair* shops will disappear.
2-A petrol/diesel* engine has 20,000 individual parts. An electrical motor has 20. Electric cars are sold with lifetime guarantees and are only repaired by dealers. It takes only 10 minutes to remove and replace an electric motor.
3-Faulty electric* motors are not repaired in the dealership but are sent to a regional repair shop that repairs them with robots.
4-Your electric motor* malfunction light goes on, so you drive up to what looks like a car wash, and your car is towed through while you have a cup of coffee and out comes your car with a new electric motor!
5-Petrol pumps* will go away.
6-Street corners* will have meters that dispense electricity. Companies will install electrical recharging stations; in fact, they’ve already started in the developed world.
7-Smart major* auto manufacturers have already designated money to start building new plants that only build electric cars.
8-Coal industries* will go away. Gasoline/oil companies will go away. Drilling for oil will stop. So say goodbye to OPEC! The middle-east is in trouble.
9-Homes* will produce and store more electrical energy during the day and then they use and will sell it back to the grid. The grid stores it and dispenses it to industries that are high electricity users. Has anybody seen the Tesla roof?
10-A baby of today* will only see personal cars in museums. The FUTURE is approaching faster than most of us can handle.
