China’s Abandoned, Obsolete EVs Are Piling Up in Cities

The demand helped juice an industry that has grown exponentially ever since. China is now the world leader in clean cars, producing around 6 million EVs and plug-in hybrids last year, or almost one in every three new cars sold domestically. It accounts for 60% of the world’s current electric fleet, and has the most extensive EV charging infrastructure on Earth — also built with government support.

The graveyards are a troubling consequence of that consolidation. Not only are the sites an eyesore, getting rid of EVs so quickly reduces their climate benefit considering they’re more emissions-intensive to build and only produce an advantage over combustion cars after a few years.

China’s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities

A subsidy-fueled boom helped build China into an electric-car giant but left weed-infested lots across the nation brimming with unwanted battery-powered vehicles.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[Evpowerdan]

I wonder if China's general economic slowdown has also played some role in this phenomenon. Things are actually pretty shaky there right now on the economic front.

Where are they not shaky right now? That 2021-2022 FOMO, super World wide injection of money into the system boomerang was going to hit hard in a negative - those effects will last a while.

 

[izzzyyd]

He said clean cars lols at them totally destroying the environment in mining

 

[chinney]

Actually, it is interesting that China by far leads other countries in EV battery recycling. This article is interesting in this regard.

Dead EV batteries turn to gold with US incentives

A little-publicized clause in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has companies scrambling to recycle electric vehicle batteries in North America, putting the region at the forefront of a global race to undermine China's dominance of the field.

www.reuters.com

So it is at least conceivable that the batteries on those abandoned Chinese cars will be of interest to recycling firms in that country. As the article points out though, other countries - including the U.S. - are developing battery recycling infrastructure. There are a lot of valuable materials in those batteries.