14 COLUMN
@ green | JANUARY-FEBRUARY , 2023
Is road transport electrification effective in reducing emissions ?
China has led the way in EV production and sales and expected to dominate the global share of EVs
LAL ‘ S CHAT
BY G . LALCHAND
THE global community had immense expectations from COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference , the first-ever in the African continent , after the relatively more well-promoted and successful COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021 , where some critical decisions had been achieved and were very heavily publicised .
Such community-enticing publicity activities seemed to be somewhat muted . However , the conference had a more than adequate representation from the strident NGO / CSO ( Non-Government Organisations / Civil Service Organisations ) from around the world , including Malaysia , which has been a consistent and active participant in these conferences .
Unfortunately , the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 caused tremendous upheavals in the ‘ local ( European )’ and global energy supply chains .
This caused the countries severely impacted by the supply disruptions to reactivate and even plan enhanced coalfired power generation plants to satisfy their urgent and immediate energy needs , as well as to ensure their national energy security for the future in the volatile geopolitical environment that has evolved .
Notwithstanding this apparent anomaly in the global decarbonisation trajectory , the potential technologies for such efforts have continued unabated , especially for the energy sector and transportation needs , which consume the bulk of the liquid hydrocarbon fossil fuels .
The hype to go “ Electric ” for road transport , especially over the last decade , led predominantly by Tesla , has created a growing share of electric vehicles ( EVs ) in the primary motor vehicle markets . Unsurprisingly , China has led the way in EV production and sales as time goes by and is expected to dominate the global share of EVs .
Unfortunately , China has not balanced this effort with the desired equivalent clean RE , such as solar , wind or hydropower generation , to provide the clean electricity to recharge the EV batteries , with about 60 per cent of its electricity still being generated from fossil fuels .
However , to its credit , China has developed a tremendous amount of solar and wind-powered clean electricity generation capacity .
A recent report read : China is accelerating wind and solar power development for its transition to green energy even as it increases coal , oil , and gas output to ensure energy security this year , the National Energy Administration ( NEA ) says .
By the end of this year , the installed capacity of wind power will reach about 430 million kilowatts ( kW ), and the installed capacity of solar power will reach about 490 million kW , the NEA said at a conference that mapped out goals for 2023 .
It also said more efforts would be made to coordinate hydropower development and ecological protection with a goal of
423 million kW of installed hydropower capacity by 2023 .
The NEA also vowed to develop nuclear power in a safe and orderly manner actively . The goal is to increase the installed capacity of nuclear power by 2.89 million kW .
Hence , massive China ’ s battery electric vehicle ( BEV ) fleet will still be spewing a significant portion of its carbon emissions at its fossil fuel power plants .
The “ EV market ” development in Malaysia ’ s automotive sector has followed the global trend , i . e . a slow initial growth as the relevant infrastructure is developed and buyers gain confidence in the products , especially concerning the primary range anxiety .
Promotions of new models indicate an exponentially growing market share for the “ EV sales ” and early bookings for the many new and more affordable , mainly of made-in-China models .
THE BEV MARKET
The projected exponential expansion of the BEV market includes governmentannounced fiscal incentives for BEVs as government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector . The demand after Covid-19 forced a slowdown in overall vehicle purchases , including BEV sales locally , which may also influence the projected exponential growth .
The Dec 22 , 2022 , edition of WapCar on website “ https :// www . wapcar . my / news / evsales-in-malaysia-expected-to-rise-bymore-than-45-in-2023-according-to-analysts-59751 ”, quoted several encouraging government announcements to promote the acceptance and sales of BEVs in Malaysia .
Among the critical statements was : With more than 20 types of EVs on sale in Malaysia , buyers have a growing number of choices . As of October 2022 , 2,093 units of EVs were registered , according to the Malaysian Automotive Association ( MAA ).