Dwindling fossil fuel resources, chronic air pollution and growing recognition that climate change is having a detrimental impact on human life, have convinced Beijing to introduce an array of far-reaching policies to support the adoption of electric vehicles across China. Beijing’s renewable energy policies have been supported by vast financial investment in the EV industry, and a vision of dominating next-generation technologies.

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These initiatives have made China the world’s biggest supporter of electric cars, and the most powerful political force driving the EV revolution.

Alongside government support, the popularity of electric cars in China has been aided by the country’s existing infrastructure. China’s dense, crowded cities mean drivers require vehicles for shorter distances that in more sparsely populated cities, like in the US. Furthermore, China’s extensive high-speed rail network eliminates the need for most car owners to drive long distances between cities.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for the opening of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

China’s transportation infrastructure and the central government’s promotion of EVs has made electric cars extremely popular, and experts are predicting that all cars in China will be electric by 2030.

A report from 2016 indicates that China already has a clear lead in the adoption of electric vehicles. Last year, 507,000 EVs and hybrid EVs were sold in China, (a 53 percent increase from 2015) compared with Europe where 222,200 EVs and hybrid EVs (14 percent increase) and the US, where 157,130 EVs and hybrid EVs were sold (36 percent increase).

General Motors already sells more vehicles in China than they do in America, and America’s leading electric car brand, Tesla, sells more cars to China than any other market outside the US. Tesla has now confirmed it will establish a manufacturing facility in Shanghai.

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With Beijing issuing regulations which require auto manufacturers to sell more alternative-energy vehicles and rumours that the Chinese government will soon ban the production of fossil fuel vehicles, automakers worldwide are speeding up their efforts to develop competitive electric cars.

China’s influence on the automobile industry is massive, and the policies coming out of Beijing are forcing manufacturers in Germany, Japan and the US to bring forward their schedules for the development of electric vehicles. Auto manufactures which delay their transition to electric powered vehicles may lose out on what is set to be the most significant developments in personal transportation since the 1950s.

As Michelle Krebs, a senior analyst for Autotrader, explains, “Any automaker that is a global automaker has to be focused on China, the world’s biggest market now and likely into the future… China is too big to ignore.”

FILE PHOTO: Chairman of the Board, CEO and co-founder of Future Mobility, Carsten Breitfeld, speaks in front of a screen showing an image of a new Byton car at a press conference in Shanghai, China September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

General Motors and Ford recently announcing their plan to include 33 electric models in their new lineups. Volvo has announced it will stop making vehicles powered by internal combustion engines by 2019, and will introduce five brand new electric vehicles by 2021.

Honda, which had previously been focusing on the development of hydrogen and hybrid cars, has modified its plans in the wake of China’s pro-EV policies and now plans to launch two brand new EVs, specifically for the Chinese market, in 2018. Toyota is aiming to surpass Tesla’s EV expertise with the development of brand new models which will use all-solid-state batteries, allowing ultra fast recharging.

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While China has been enticing global manufacturers like Volkswagen, General Motors and Tesla to establish research and production facilities in China, the country’s leaders are also keen to ensure Chinese manufacturers remain competitive and innovative. Currently the best selling EVs in China are all locally produced, with Kandi Technologies, BYD, Chery and Zoelte dominating the Chinese market.

China has also been resolute to tackle the largest obstacle in the transition from gasoline to electricity – battery charging facilities. According to China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, the country aims to build enough charging facilities to cater for five million electric vehicles by 2020. In 2016, 100,000 public charging points were established nationwide, bringing the total up to 150,000 points across the country.

The Tesla showroom at the Washington Square Mall, in Portland. Source: AP

According to the National Energy Administration, they are on target to increase this to 250,000 public charging point by the end of 2017. In China’s biggest cities, the target is for public charging facilities to never be further away than 5km. Beijing and Shanghai have already reached these goals.

In contrast to China’s accelerated transition from the combustion engine to electric powered transportation, much of Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, is ill prepared for this transportation revolution, lacking the necessary infrastructure to provide easily accessible public charging facilities.

Regional leaders hoping to remove deadly polluting vehicles from their cities’ street, would be advised to follow China’s lead, invest in EV charging infrastructure and embrace the inevitable death of the combustion engine.

This article was originally published on our sister site, Asian Correspondent. 

The post Electric vehicles find an unlikely champion in China appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Experts believe we are now on the verge of the largest economic transformation in recorded history, with robots set to become a common feature of modern working environments.

The long held belief that this robotic revolution would impact developed countries long before it affected developing nations, with low labor costs, is proving to be a misconception.

The International Data Corporation’s (IDC) publication Worldwide Robotics 2017 Predictions is one of many recent reports which concludes that robotic technologies will jeopardise the livelihoods of millions of people, while the Bank of England estimates that 95 million jobs will be taken over by robots within the next 10 to 20 years.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Southeast Asia will experience serious upheavals as automation spreads across the region. It “estimates that about 56 percent of all salaried employment in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam is at risk of displacement due to technology in the next couple of decades”.

The ILO report suggests the impact in Southeast Asia would be felt hardest on “labor-intensive sectors such as textiles, clothing and footwear” – sectors that employ millions of workers across the Asean Economic Community, many of whom are women.

These sentiments are reinforced by Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work:

“There is an idea that automation is a rich country problem, but it’s much more of a problem for lower income economies… It’s not going to be easy to turn this into an opportunity and I don’t think the traditional approaches of the labour movement are going to solve it.”

Deborah France-Massin, director of the ILO’s Bureau for Employers’ Activities, also warns that countries in the region will face serious challenges, saying, “Countries that compete on low-wage labour need to reposition themselves. Policymakers need to create a more conducive environment that leads to greater human capital investment, research and development, and high-value production.”

Jürgen Rüland, professor of political science at Germany’s University of Freiburg, predicts the next industrial revolution will lead to social unrest by further escalating social inequalities.

“Job losses will thus further deepen the already rapidly increasing disparities between rural and urban areas and between the better- and the less-educated segments of the population,” he says.

Labourers work at a garment factory in Hung Yen province, outside Hanoi Jan 5, 2017. Source: Reuters/Kham

Furthermore, it is no longer just cheap labour that is threatened by automation – new technologies will also replace workers in more highly skilled jobs, as well as work in the service sector, jeopardizing occupations which had previously been considered safe from automation.

The implications of this monumental shift need to be acknowledged and governments throughout Southeast Asia need to begin preparing for a world in which robots will play a larger role in the workplace.

One solution which some governments in Europe have been considering is providing an unconditional basic income to all citizens, an approach currently being trialled in Finland.

SEE ALSO: Are we ready for a universal basic income?

Basic income advocates, including Silicon Valley CEOs such as Elon Musk and Bill Gate, argue that as artificial intelligence (AI) takes over the work of employees, governments will not be able to tackle mass unemployment by conventional means. A basic income will be needed to ensure social stability.

Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work also believes that without a universal basic income, large scale unemployment could lead to social unrest. Furthermore, the economy would slowly grind to a halt with insufficient numbers of individuals to purchase the products and services supplied by the automated workforce.

While the concept of basic income could realistically be introduced to areas of Europe and North America over the coming decade, it is unlikely that this approach will be adopted in Southeast Asia until it’s been tried, and proved successful, throughout other regions of the world.

As such, policymakers in Southeast Asia will need to adopt other initiatives to tackle the challenges of the next industrial revolution, such as retraining and education.

Retraining low skilled workers is an important step and one which has been suggested by Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby, who outlined five strategies for adapting to life in the robotic age.

Davenport and Kirby argue that it will be necessary for workers to develop their knowledge and skills to remain employable in the future jobs market. Computer and engineering skills will be particularly important as machines and robots will still need tech savvy individuals to monitor, program, fix and adjust their work.

A lab technician in a pharmaceutical factory. Source: RGtimeline/Shutterstock

Computer engineering will be an important occupation for decades to come and it is for this reason that education systems in the US and Europe are making a concerted effort to produce more graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills. Individuals with a STEM education will be better equipped to negotiate the modern economic landscape.

Furthermore, tech savvy individuals who are able to think outside the box will be able to develop the next generation of technological solutions to overcome the challenges of life in the 21st Century, in same the way Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have been doing for the past two decades.

SEE ALSO: Vietnam: The rise of ASEAN’s ‘Silicon Valley’

In Southeast Asia, Singapore and Vietnam are the countries which are best placed to meet the challenges of the robotic revolution. Both countries have significantly improved education systems which rank highly in international educational rankings. Tech skills, computer coding ability and STEM skills are also high in these countries, as is an entrepreneurial spirit.

Burma and Laos, the poorest countries in the AEC, both have poor infrastructure and low internet penetration rates, which will hinder the growth of robotics and automation for the foreseeable future. As such they will probably be the last countries directly disrupted by the robotics revolution.

This leaves Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia to face the most immediate consequences of the next industrial revolution.

For these countries, the ability to successfully implement STEM education and relevant retraining programs will determine their success in overcoming the challenges of the new economic landscape.

Countries which fail to upskill their work forces, and provide school leavers with the relevant skills for the 21st century, may face a lost generation of workers, unemployed and unemployable.

This article first appeared on Asian Correspondent

The post Is Southeast Asia ready for the robotics revolution? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Increasing concerns about the long-term consequences of urban air pollution, wider recognition that fossil fuels are contributing to climate change, growing political determination to become less reliant on Middle Eastern oil, and significant advances in technology, have contributed to the rise of the EV, with electric powered vehicles set to become the norm for private transportation within the next 20 years.

Interestingly, it is two of the world biggest polluters, America and China, that are leading the global adoption of electric cars. The United States has over 450,000 registered plug-in electric vehicles and China has over 300,000 ‘new energy vehicles’ (NEVs), although, in light of recent corruption allegations the exact number of NEVs in China is difficult to determine. The third largest market for EVs is Japan, with over 150,000 vehicles, and more charging points across the country than petrol stations.

The growing popularity of the electric vehicle is also benefiting from the production of attractive and affordable models by established car manufacturers. Among the current bestselling EVs are Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S and BMW i3. Nissan’s Leaf, with its quirky looks and hi-tech interior is the global best seller, the Tesla Model S is a luxury EV which competes directly with established executive saloons such as the Mercedes E-Class, and BMW’s i3 is a purpose-built EV with a futuristic design and excellent performance (0-62mph in an impressive 7.2 seconds).

A Nissan Leaf by a solar-assisted EV charging system at Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Pic: AP.

Although the development of attractive modern electric cars is encouraging market demand, the EV revolution remains entirely dependent on countries developing the necessary charging infrastructure to ensure car owners don’t find themselves stranded far from home and unable to recharge. As Joseph G Peter, Nissan’s chief finance officer, told analysts, “an important element of the continued market growth is the development of the charging infrastructure”, a factor which could prove a significant stumbling block for much of Asia.

Today’s top-selling electric vehicles require between two and six hours for a full charge which on average will power the vehicles for approximately 100 miles. These current restrictions reinforce the perception that EVs are best suited to urban transportation. Given Asia’s ongoing urbanization and the continued growth of the continent’s mega cities, EVs appear to be an excellent fit for the region.

Recently, SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, labelled Hong Kong a “beacon city” for electric vehicles. The government of Hong Kong has been promoting the use of electric vehicles to reduce street level emissions through a combination of policies, including generous tax breaks. The Hong Kong government is also planning to have public transport adopt EVs with an ultimate policy objective of running only zero emission buses throughout the territory.

Meanwhile, mainland China appears to be particularly keen to establish itself as a leader of the EV revolution with the central government implementing plans to become a center for electric car manufacturing. Currently the bestselling EVs in China are all locally produced with Kandi Technologies, BYD, Chery and Zoelte, dominating the Chinese market. There have also been rumors that Tesla will open a factory in China. Tesla CTO JB Straubel recently admitted that it would make sense for the company to build a factory in the country when local demand reaches a “critical mass”. Industry insiders suggest that could be as soon as 2019.

Japan has about 150,000 registered electric vehicles and there are now more than 40,000 places nationwide where electric car owners can recharge their vehicles, compared with only 35,000 petrol stations. Japan is currently the only country in the world to have more charging points than petrol stations and over the coming five years the Japanese government aims to deploy 2 million regular chargers and 5,000 fast charging points.

With recent reports predicting big reductions in battery prices in the near future, it is being suggested that the EV revolution will be far more dramatic than most governments had anticipated and EVs will become a more economic option than gasoline cars in most countries by 2020.

If Asia intends to move away from gasoline-powered transportation, the region’s leaders need to begin encouraging city planners and urban developers to integrate EV charging infrastructure with upcoming construction projects such as shopping malls, business parks, government buildings and apartment complexes. The opportunity to improve the quality of life in Asia’s cities, by transitioning towards cleaner transportation, is at hand. It just requires the necessary insight and planning to make it a reality.

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