Apple has given up building cars, and the prospects of electric vehicles are not optimistic? Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, General Motors, and other auto giants have given up, downsized, and even attacked electric vehicles? There are also claims that electric vehicle tires emit more toxic gases? In this episode, we will take a look at the news about new energy vehicles.
(1) Apple's abandonment of car manufacturing proves that the prospect of electric vehicles is not optimistic?
On February 27, 2024 local time, Apple's chief operating officer Jeff Williams and vice president in charge of electric vehicle manufacturing projects Vin Lynch announced that Apple has decided to cancel all development plans for self-driving electric vehicle projects and instead increase investment in the field of generative AI. Subsequently, the news was reported by major media, and netizens also joined the discussion, some people believe that Apple is both a technology giant and has a lot of money, but gave up the electric car project, which just proves that the prospect of electric vehicles is not optimistic.
Apple's abandonment of electric vehicle manufacturing is an official announcement, but is the reason for the abandonment really not optimistic about the prospects of electric vehicles?
We have sorted out the development of Apple's car-making project over the years. In 2014, Apple fans first heard about Project Titan, or Cook's approved Apple car project. In the years since, the program has undergone frequent and dramatic personnel changes, but the automotive manufacturing business has been in the same place. In 2022 and 2023, there will be no product news released from Apple's "Titan Project", and some are just high-level departures and the breakup of the R&D team. And experts also gave explanations for the bottlenecks faced by Apple's car manufacturing and the reasons for changing the track.
Cui Dongshu (Secretary General of the China Automobile Dealers Association): "Apple has taken a long time in the development of electric vehicles, and many links have been seriously offline. Overall, Apple has many difficulties in the development of electric vehicles that are difficult to overcome, especially the entire manufacturing process of electric vehicles. This itself is a relatively traditional production process that requires a lot of technological innovation, and in this regard, Apple does not necessarily have strong resources or its own capacity reserves, so it is not particularly smooth in the development process of electric vehicles. Therefore, it gave up R&D and turned to the development of AI, which I think is a more reasonable and correct choice, and it has also been recognized by the market. ”
Therefore, the real reason why Apple gave up building cars is the adjustment of its business strategy.
(2) "Europe and the United States don't play electric cars, leaving us to entertain ourselves"?
Apple's abandonment of making cars may be due to the fact that artificial intelligence is more in line with its "king of technology" tonality, so Mercedes-Benz, Ford, these car company bigwigs "defected" to fuel vehicles, is it because they are not optimistic about the development of new energy vehicles?
Let's talk about American car companies first, it doesn't make much sense to look at Ford and GM, because as long as Tesla is still making electric vehicles, the United States will not give up electric cars. Even in Chinese mainland, where the electric vehicle market is the hottest, the cumulative annual sales of Ford Electric Horse in 2023 will only be 3,109 units. At the end of last year, Ford unveiled the new 2024 electric horse, and it is said that only 56 units were sold in January. It doesn't look like Ford is abandoning EVs, it's consumers abandoning Ford EVs.
Almost at the same time as Apple's abandonment of car manufacturing, the news about Mercedes-Benz's complete abandonment of electric vehicles and its return to fuel vehicles was published in major media. Some see this as the latest evidence of the global auto industry's pessimism about the future of battery electric vehicles after slowing sales growth. Some people also believe that the decision-making of European and American companies shows that fuel vehicles are still the development direction of future automobiles.
Mercedes-Benz's "all-electric" strategy began in September 2021, with the goal of reaching 50% of sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid models by 2025, and an all-electric version of every newly released model, and a complete transition to pure electric models from 2030.
Mercedes-Benz put forward this goal not only as its business strategy, but also as a background that cannot be ignored.
Two months before Mercedes-Benz announced its "all-electric" announcement, the European Commission had already proposed a bill to ban the sale of gasoline vehicles. Since 2005, many countries have announced and promoted policies to ban the sale of fuel vehicles, planning to ban the sale of some or all fossil fuel-powered vehicles in the coming decades, so as to achieve the goal of improving air pollution and slowing down global warming. In March 2023, the Council of the European Union approved regulations to formally ban the sale of new combustion engine cars and minivans that contribute to carbon emissions from 2035.
Since there are relevant laws and regulations, why did Mercedes-Benz decide to "go the other way" and abandon electric vehicles and switch back to fully developed fuel vehicles? In the relevant media reports, many people mentioned that this was the speech of Mercedes-Benz CEO Kang Linsong at the annual general meeting of shareholders in February. What did Kang Linsong say?
Reading carefully the relevant reports of the mainstream media in Chinese and English, we learned that Kang Linsong's speech at the shareholders' meeting was as follows: Mercedes-Benz has abandoned the goal of selling electric vehicles entirely in major markets by 2030, and adjusted to reach 50% of total sales of electric and hybrid vehicles, and the original 2025 target has been postponed to 2030. Mercedes-Benz also plans to launch a new lineup of internal combustion engine models by 2027, which will continue until 2030.
At the same time, the summary and strategic adjustment of the Mercedes-Benz Group's "2023 Annual Meeting" on February 22 were published on the official website of Mercedes-Benz, which very clearly introduced the long-term and short-term goals for the next ten years and 2024, and mentioned that it will enter the "all-electric era".
Therefore, Mercedes-Benz's abandonment of electric vehicles or Mercedes-Benz's abandonment of the electrification strategy is mistaken by the title party, and Mercedes-Benz is abandoning the comprehensive electric vehicle plan, rather than giving up the electric vehicle plan completely.
Kang Songlin clearly responded in an interview with a Chinese media: "By 2030, we have never wavered in our determination to achieve electrification when market conditions allow. ”
(3) Electric vehicles emit more toxic gases than gasoline vehicles?
Recently, there have been many posts and messages on the Internet saying that "new energy vehicles emit more toxic gases than gasoline vehicles", saying that some studies have found that electric vehicle brakes and tires emit 1,850 times more particulate pollutants than exhaust pipes equipped with high-efficiency exhaust filters, and most vehicle pollution is caused by tire wear, which shows that electric vehicles cause greater environmental pollution than gasoline vehicles.
We found an article in the New York Post on March 5, 2024, through screenshots of some posts. The article points out that the conclusion comes from a 2022 study by an emissions data company called Emission, which has attracted attention after it was recently cited by the Wall Street Journal. The report argues that electric vehicles release more toxic particles into the atmosphere than gasoline-powered vehicles, causing a more serious environmental impact.
New York Post article
When quoting "why electric cars are more polluting than gasoline vehicles", the reason given in the article is that electric vehicles are generally heavier than gasoline vehicles, so the brakes and tires of battery-powered cars wear out faster than gasoline vehicles, and this wear and tear will produce toxic particles that are released into the air.
However, when it comes to enumerating specific data, the comparison method given in the article is confusing.
The first set of data, in the front, is the particulate pollutants released by the brakes and tires of electric vehicles, but the back is the exhaust pipe emissions of gasoline-powered vehicles, and the question of where the tires of gasoline-powered vehicles are released is not said at all.
The second set of data, the front is the tire wear caused by the weight of the electric vehicle battery, and why is the emission of direct exhaust particulates in the back? Who emits the waste particulate emissions?
We found additional notes from Emission on its first related study published in early 2020. The purpose of the original report was to remind the relevant authorities to pay attention to the regulation of tire pollution. Because after all, electric cars are considered "zero emission". The supplementary report is a further explanation of how the conclusions related to tyre pollution were reached.
However, neither in the first report nor in the supplementary report, the vehicles used as experiments were not divided into gasoline and electric vehicles for comparison, but simply studied the factors related to the wear and tear emissions of tires.
The original text of the report states that tire particulate emissions are indeed polluting, and its emissions are related to the weight of the vehicle, the age of the tires, driving habits and many other factors. If we want to really solve this problem, we should change the formula of tire production to reduce toxic substances.
Obviously, this research report was taken out of context by the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal as a basis for attacking electric vehicles as not environmentally friendly. But why is there such obvious misleading information in such a big media? This brings us to the US election. Currently, the Biden administration is reviewing California's plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, and Trump has publicly criticized the Biden administration's electric vehicle development policy. In the election year, how will the issue of the development of electric vehicles be exploited in the election campaign, and what impact will it have on China's new energy vehicle exports? Listen to what Sun Bingyan, an expert on American issues, has to say.
Sun Bingyan (Lecturer, School of International Relations): "The Biden administration, through the US Environmental Protection Agency, has more strictly regulated the exhaust emission standards of gasoline vehicles, which is to force American oil truck companies to accelerate the production of new energy vehicles and achieve the goal of reaching 50% market share of new energy vehicles in the United States by 2030, but now this data is only 8%. If stricter emissions standards are passed in California, the other 17 states in the United States will follow suit, which will be fatal to the U.S. gasoline industry. Trump's obvious extreme slogan that the Biden administration will ban the sale of petrol trucks, or even ban the use of petrol trucks altogether, is more to co-opt the interest groups and blue-collar workers behind the petrol industry. In fact, this is a one-sided interpretation of Biden's policy, more from the perspective of the campaign. ”
Producer: Liang Yin
Choreographer: Zhang Heng
Editor: Yu Erya Zhang Xining