Editor? /? Qian yaguang

Design? /? Du Kai

Source? /? The New York Times, by Jim? Motavali

At the beginning of 10, the school bus passed a place called Beverly, a suburb of Boston, USA.

Beverly's first electric school bus. Advocates of clean energy hope that the public's settlement money will be used more for projects like Beverly's new electric school bus?

Every working day, buses and minivans do similar shuttle in the city, but this school bus has two differences. First of all, this bus is surprisingly quiet, because it is purely electric and there is no noisy diesel engine under the hood; Secondly, the passengers on the bus are not students, but local officials and journalists. Because this day Beverly ushered in its first battery-powered school bus. ?

The city hopes to convert all its 27 full-size school buses into electric vehicles. This is a big financial problem, because the cost of an electric school bus may be three times that of a diesel version. However, the solution of Volkswagen's "tailgate" is very helpful to start the project. ?

20 15 Volkswagen admitted that about 590,000 diesel vehicles cheated in the federal emission test and polluted the environment. 2065438+June 2006, Volkswagen and the federal court reached a settlement of1500 million US dollars, in addition to compensating American car owners (more than 1 10 billion US dollars) and investing 2 billion US dollars in electric vehicle charging infrastructure (the project is called Electrify? In addition to the United States, Volkswagen must also come up with a $2.9 billion trust fund to compensate the States with excessive nitrogen oxide pollution. ?

Four years later, this part of the public settlement fund has been playing a role and contributing to environmental cleaning. Most of the $2.9 billion trust fund is used for the research and development of new diesel engines, which are still diesel engines, but much cleaner than the old engines they replace. Beverly's electric school bus and other projects are a small part of the rest. ?

The number of diesel people affected in each state is the main factor determining the allocation of funds, ranging from $423 million in California to more than $8 million in North Dakota and South Dakota. According to Atlas public policy, by the beginning of September, about $700 million had been distributed or provided nationwide. ?

Massachusetts has received funding from four electric school buses, and the Beverly School Bus is one of them. "Our goal is to transition to a clean and renewable transport fleet as much as possible." Mayor Michael Cahill (Michael? p？ Cahill) said at the ceremony on June 8 10 that he pointed out the cost gap between electric vehicles and diesel vehicles. He called it "the first step among many steps". ?

"Tail Valve" Whistleblower: Is it meaningful to develop clean diesel engines?

The exposure of the Volkswagen scandal owes much to the International Clean Transportation Committee, a small non-profit organization in the United States, and its engineer John german. Testers from the Committee and the University of West Virginia investigated the emissions of diesel vehicles and trucks in the United States and found that Volkswagen's emissions exceeded the federal standards by as much as 35 times. At first, the researchers thought there was something wrong with the test, but after repeated tests, they got the same result. ?

Germans think it is meaningful to replace the old one with a new one. He said, "Before 20 10, diesel vehicles and buses did not have particulate matter filters, and particulate matter is the biggest health hazard emitted by vehicles so far." German also said that "charging infrastructure is one of the neglected parts in the transition to electric vehicles", and he was glad to see that some funds were used for this. ?

"Yes, diesel engines are much cleaner than before," said Daniel Sparling, founding director of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of California, Davis. Sperling) said, "The question is: How should we strongly support this temporary transition scheme to reduce nitrogen oxides compared with electrification, a more lasting solution?" ?

The life of new diesel trucks may be as long as 20 years or more. However, the Diesel Technology Forum pointed out that federal regulations force the use of cleaner diesel engines, and another study claimed that nitrogen oxide emissions from new cars have been reduced by 94%. According to the EPA, "the new heavy trucks and buses are about 99% cleaner than the 1970 model". ?

"The biggest sources of nitrogen oxides are heavy-duty diesel trucks, construction equipment and marine engines," said Allen Shafir, executive director of Diesel Forum. Schaeffer) said, "To solve the biggest source." He said that replacing the engine of an old diesel tugboat is equivalent to removing 74,000 cars from the road. ?

The funds from the Volkswagen Reconciliation Trust Fund can be used for replacing old diesel engines (engines in 2009 or before) or electrification, and can be applied to all types of vehicles, including buses or heavy trucks, ferries or tugboats, airport ground equipment, port forklifts or trucks. The "Diesel Engine Technology Forum", an automobile industry organization, said that in the national plan, the scale of funds for diesel engine replacement is increasing, accounting for more than 70% of the available funds. ?

Clean energy advocate: Is it time to retire diesel technology?

"Volkswagen's settlement funds were spent on non-electric technology, and we are obviously very disappointed." Plug? Are you online? US Policy Director Katherine (Katherine? Stainken) said, "These funds should be used for technologies with zero pollution. In the future transportation, both light and heavy vehicles are electric. " ?

Beverly's fast charging device can also call the power grid back?

Ken Adler (Ken? Adler) thinks that "how to use this money depends on what you think is the biggest problem." ?

"If you think this is an existential threat brought by climate change, then you will want to spend the money of reconciliation on the electric school bus." Adler continued, "but diesel engines can be very environmentally unfriendly, and it is much cheaper to replace them with newer diesel engines." ?

Advocates of electric vehicles admit that the battery technology of heavy trucks is still in its infancy, but they say that's why Volkswagen's reconciliation fund is important and can be used to promote early development. "Battery power and hydrogen technology are driving forces in the market." Cristiano, global director of CALSTART, who is committed to further promoting zero emission technology? Law? Anha) said. ?

Tesla Motors has announced the launch of an electric semi-trailer truck with a cruising range of 500 miles (800 kilometers) and started accepting reservations, but the first delivery date has been postponed to 202 1 year. In September, GM announced a strategic partnership with Nikola, a heavy truck manufacturer of electric and zero-emission fuel cells, but since then, Nikola's technology has been questioned and reviewed.

The "integral system" is a good way.

States in the United States have considerable autonomy in allocating public reconciliation funds. The American Public Interest Research Group has developed a scorecard for state plans. Spending money on power projects will get points, while spending money on diesel or other fossil fuel technologies will get points.

Washington and Hawaii got A+, Rhode Island and Vermont got A, and California, Massachusetts and new york got B, but many states did badly: 265,438+0 states plus Washington, D.C. were rated as D, and 65,438+04 states plus Puerto Rico failed (meaning they didn't give any priority to power projects). ?

"Our argument is that we must take a long-term view and stop wasting energy on the fuel technology that caused the problem in the first place." Matt Salai, director of the PIRG environmental movement in the United States and co-author of the study (Matt? Casale) said. He added that many low-ranking states are replacing diesel engines, which will be retired through normal procurement procedures anyway, so there is no net income from the settlement funds. ?

Some states tend to be electrified to a great extent. New york's truck incentive plan reimburses operators for the higher cost of 95% battery or fuel cell trucks compared with the same diesel vehicles (in contrast, the subsidy rate for hybrid vehicles, propane or compressed natural gas is 90%). Zero-emission buses account for 100% and electric school buses account for 80%. ?

Jared Snyder, Deputy Commissioner of the Air Resources, Climate Change and Energy Agency (Jared? Snyder) said that it will get about $90 million from the trust fund of $654.38+$27.7 million from the New York State Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, more than160,000 USD has not been put in place, which will be used for the delivery of charging equipment or vehicles and the scrapping of existing vehicles according to the requirements of the public settlement agreement.

New york's plan is progressing relatively slowly. Barry Carr, Executive Director of the Clean Community in Central new york (related to the Clean City Program of the US Department of Energy)? Carr) said that this also has certain advantages. "On the bright side, the slow progress now adds new technologies that were not available when the plan was established two years ago." He said. ?

Obviously, companies interested in the field of electric vehicles want to see this process accelerate. ?

"We are very happy to help States achieve their ambitious climate reduction targets by reducing emissions." Cathy of EVgo? Zoi) said that the company is a fast charging company, and it is cooperating with public reconciliation projects in Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington and Florida. "But if people want to buy electric cars, they must feel that they can charge at any time. The construction of charging infrastructure must keep up. " ?

Electrolysis was carried out by Brian foulds (Brian? Foulds), he takes the electric school bus in Beverly. Foulds is an advocate of electric vehicles and a resident of nearby Concord. The town is also looking forward to getting an electric school bus through the public reconciliation fund. ?

Concord has had a battery-powered bus since 20 16. In 20 17, it installed a large 5.5 MW solar cell array near the town colonel's garage, as well as its own municipal public facilities. "Getting rid of fossil fuels is what we need to do."? Foulds said.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.