India's Delhi Plans To Curb Gasoline Car Sales, Ban Gas-Guzzling Bikes To Shed Polluter Tag (reuters.com) 32
India's capital New Delhi plans to limit gasoline and diesel-powered cars a family can buy as well as ban sales of fuel-guzzling motorbikes and scooters, according to a draft policy aimed at cleaning up one of the world's most polluted cities. From a report: The measures represent one of the most drastic steps the city has lined up to tackle pollution, which often forces local authorities to ban some construction, shut schools and disrupt flights in the city of more than 30 million people during the winter season.
Under Delhi's new electric vehicle policy, the city government will also waive some local taxes on the purchase of hybrids, putting them on par with concessions given to EVs, while imposing a new levy of 0.5 rupees ($0.0059) on every litre of petrol sales, according to the 74-page draft seen by Reuters. The primary objective "is to unlock the next phase of EV adoption, reduce air pollution and contribute to India's energy independence and net-zero targets," the draft stated.
Under Delhi's new electric vehicle policy, the city government will also waive some local taxes on the purchase of hybrids, putting them on par with concessions given to EVs, while imposing a new levy of 0.5 rupees ($0.0059) on every litre of petrol sales, according to the 74-page draft seen by Reuters. The primary objective "is to unlock the next phase of EV adoption, reduce air pollution and contribute to India's energy independence and net-zero targets," the draft stated.
Coal? (Score:2)
I thought India and China's problems were mostly due to coal power plants.
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Re:Coal? (Score:5, Informative)
New Delhi is very, very polluted. About 200 AQI, on average! Yeah, coal is a big part of it, but there's a lot of blame to go around.
Google says 33% of pollution there is from Internal Combustion Engines.
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Is internal combustion engine dirtier than coal?
I have no idea honestly, since I assume the specific coal plant and car being used would have a HUGE impact.
Also, there's a proximity situation. Is internal combustion next to me from a moped worse than a coal plant 10 miles away? No idea, except for with my nose I can tell when I'm next to a moped, but not 10 miles from a coal plant.
Is internal combustion engine dirtier than coal? (Score:2)
A 2-stroke running on a petrol/oil mixture
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Unburned hydrocarbons are said to be the worst hazardous vehicular emission in every way. They are volatile, they have high GWP, and they are commonly carcinogenic.
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Have you been there? I'd say it's much worse than you make it sound.
A lot of the immediate pollution is from people literally burning trash and (literal) shit in the streets. Not just to get rid of it - during the colder months (Delhi gets surprisingly cold) it's also to keep warm. The trash itself strewn absolutely everywhere doesn't help either.
It was the same in most of the larger cities... this was right before Covid. Will take a lot more than electric cars to make me want to go back...
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"India" and "China" are collectively 12 million square kilometres. Now have a think: Why is air pollution so incredibly bad in the inner city centre of Delhi? And just how many coal plants do you think there are in the world in the middle of the city? (Hint: the correct answer is none).
When you think about this problem and how you generalised the concept of "India" and "China" you will go a long way to starting to understand the problem.
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where either you buy a Cybertruck or better have good shoes, because if you park that bike anywhere, it will get stolen or vandalized.
Bikes are cheaper to replace than the catalytic converter, much less the car. Both of which seem to be getting stolen more often than bikes. From the sounds of things, getting your Cybertruck keyed would be even more expensive. If crime is your fear, bikes are low risk. Walking or taking the bus even lower risk.
Sure... (Score:2)
Sure, ban cheap cars in a country where many are struggling to afford food and where many won't be able to have access to chargers at all. That's one way to solve the problem since only a few selected few will be able to have a car at all. Having cheap means of transportation is critical in poor countries to lift people from poverty. This is just going to run India into more class separation and poverty.
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Electric cars are cheap. You might not know this if you live in the US, where you are only allowed to buy expensive EVs.
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My Model Y cost about the same as a well equipped Camry or Accord, but still most expensive car I've ever owned.
If you're right, then carry on India.
I love having a car that doesn't spew exhaust. I know the energy to power it could come from many sources of various pollution, but in the zone where the car is, less exhaust is a good thing.
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Um, er, I hate to tell you this, but yesterday or the day before, I read that China's biggest selling EV retails for $10kUSD.
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No one has banned cheap cars. There are plenty of comparably cheap EVs available, especially in the moped class. Just look to China, they did the same thing many years ago. Turns out the poor are still poor and simply drive cheap electric vehicles now.
As for access to chargers. No one is struggling for power in Delhi. Most of the replacements for cheap cars plug into your local power outlet. Turns out replacing a 2.2 horse power (note the decimal point) moped with an electric vehicle doesn't require you to
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There are plenty of Chinese EVs that are price competitive with gas cars. And EVs are much much cheaper to operate.
Gas guzzling bikes? (Score:1)
Re: Gas guzzling bikes? (Score:2)
Re: Gas guzzling bikes? (Score:1)
Yeah, but I imagine the vast majority of these scooters are two-stroke or 4 stroke with zero emissions considerations, or are so poorly maintained that even if they were clean burning when new, have long since stopped being clean. OP's modern 1500cc scoot-scoot may consume more fuel but undoubtedly produces a tiny fraction of smog-contributing emissions compared to most scooters on the road in India.
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I have a 1520cc bike that does 40mpg
Congrats on not knowing what is being talked about. Generally here we're discussing 150-300cc bikes which get less than 40mpg, bonus points on being 2 stroke and having zero emissions controls. They are comparatively hugely gas guzzlers for the output they generate, and many orders of magnitude worse emissions wise than your bike or a car.
Seems more like they're trying to restrict frredom of movement than tackle pollution.
Or it seems like you have no clue. That is far more likely. What India is doing here is copying an already proven wildly successful policy from Chinese megacities
Stop pooping in fields (Score:1)
They also need to make it illegal to poop in the fields or any where that doesn't have proper sanitation.
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Re: Stop pooping in fields (Score:1)
Indeed. Lack of private toilet facilities and sewerage is a massive problem. This article is from 2014, but I doubt itâ(TM)s improved much in the meanwhile. Pardon the pun, but itâ(TM)s pretty shit.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mag... [bbc.co.uk]
"guzzling"? Um, no (Score:2)
>"as well as ban sales of fuel-guzzling motorbikes and scooters"
Motorbikes and scooters are NOT "fuel-guzzling". They are very lightweight and efficient. Many average around 100MPG, some as high as 144MPG. I think all of them have been 4-cycle engines, as well (meaning far less pollution).
Putting these in the same topic as cars/SUV's/trucks/buses is ridiculous.
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Notoriously, India has vast numbers of two-stroke scooters and motorcycles. They aren't gas-guzzling, but their exhaust emissions are very high. They're also incredibly noisy.
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Errr no. Precisely none of India's 2 stroke 150-300cc scooters get 100MPG. They are closer to 10-20MPG. Absolute gas guzzlers while producing orders of magnitude less power and orders of magnitude more pollution that a car (or the bike you ignorantly think people are driving in India).
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>"Errr no. Precisely none of India's 2 stroke 150-300cc scooters get 100MPG. They are closer to 10-20MPG."
My 14-year-old, large, extremely fast, 1400cc 4cyl/4stroke motorcycle gets up to 48MPG. And that is with a 2-way cat. How can any tiny/light bike, even 2-stroke, get only 10-20MPG?