China plans an end to the production and sale of diesel and petrol engines

Cleantechnica reports on Chinese state plans to announce an end to the production and sale of diesel and petrol engined vehicles (we suspect the latter would automatically bring about the former but hey ho..)

Whilst such a plan will be lauded as a government taking action to respond to an increasingly vociferous middle class protest at poor air quality in its cities, there may be a more strategic plan afoot here. China imports huge amounts of oil but exports rather a lot of renewable energy hardware. Anything which reduces domestic consumption of imported oil but increased take up of wind and solar electricity generation overseas,  especially in the fast growing Asian markets, is in China’s interests.

China is the world’s largest car market and it is growing at a fair old lick while car ownership in the developed world appears to be starting a structural decline. China is also the largest manufacturer of EVs and these are already getting a toe hold in Asian markets.  

This is a development which the European car giants should be watching closely…

Read about it here.