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Comment by bell-cot | Hacker News Reader

That can work pretty well in China, where the CCP has the power to Build Stuff, at scale. Things are Different in most "1st world" nations. :(

(I'd also guess that China had pretty lax emissions regulations in prior decades, making their "before" considerably worse.)

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> where the CCP has the power to Build Stuff, at scale.

Not just that, they can mandate large changes.

If you try to do that in a western country, you'll have fossil fuel lobbyists, car manufacturers and a whole range of other vested interests putting pressure on the country's government not to make that change.

You forget the citizens who can't afford to change their cars. Of course a dictatorship can just say "too fucking bad".

EVs are cheaper to buy and cheaper to run than equivalent ICE cars in China.

Which is not what I said. Buying a new car is an upfront cost that not everybody can afford to pay.

Most people in China don't have cars. They use public transportation, buses, mini electric motorbikes that can be on sidewalks, and ride hailing.

So if they can't afford to switch from ICE to EV mandate, they still have options to get around. Though I think if a person had enough money to buy an ICE car, they should have enough to switch to an EV in China.

I don’t get the sense that this is a problem in countries where accumulation of wealth and property as a show of power and success is the ultimate goal

Maybe as small "ease of mind." I expect the CCP to get as corrupted as western governments, and because of a lacking democratic spirit, id bet my money on china becoming a stable dictatorship like north korea, focused on sustaining the existing power structure than wellbeing of its citizens, like the lobbies in the west do.

Democracies might be slow and misguided but in the long term, they are the best shot to correct previous mistakes.

But who knows. Chinese leadership was very smart in the past, maybe thell find a new way.

You have a very interesting view of the world if you see China currently as less corrupted than the Western democracies.

Haha, the evolution of these comments about China has been a source of entertainment for me.

What do Chinese EV mandates, incentives, or carbon regulations look like? I had assumed that Chinese EVs were simply less expensive than gas cars and no extra incentives were needed.

I remember reading somewhere the waiting list for an ICE car permit (my interpretation: license plates) is several years. EV permits are available immediately.

With good reason too: Chinese cities had terrible air quality 10 or 15 years ago.

Doesn't matter if their before was worse. What's important now is that when one walks on a Shenzhen street, one does not breathe in gasoline car byproducts.

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