Japan announced that it will ban the sale of fuel vehicles. Is the era of new energy vehicles coming?

 

Recently, according to overseas media reports, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and The industry have initiated adjustments in the direction of stopping sales of new gasoline vehicles in Japan in the mid-2030s. In the future, all new vehicle sales in Japan will be converted to hybrid and pure electric models.

 

The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry is expected to announce the above guidelines after a meeting with stakeholders in the automotive industry on December 10. The meeting will discuss specific topics such as stopping the sale of new gasoline vehicles and formulating a framework for popularizing hybrid and pure electric vehicles.

 

It is reported that the Japanese government has set a goal to reduce the proportion of gasoline vehicles in new car sales to 30% to 50% within 30 years, but it has not yet stated when sales will be banned. This series of measures are all aimed at achieving the government goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This means that Tokyo’s "burn ban" target is five years earlier than entire Japan.

 

Data shows that the number of new cars (passenger cars) sold in Japan in 2019 was 4.3 million. Among them, about 60% (2.61 million vehicles) are gasoline and diesel vehicles. The remaining 30% are hybrid vehicles, while pure electric vehicles, which are more effective in global warming, are only about 0.5%. This is because in the Japanese market there are still problems related to the maintenance of pure electric vehicle charging piles that need to be solved. On the other hand, Japanese car companies such as Toyota mainly introduce hybrid models to the market as their main environmentally-friendly models. , The proportion of pure electric vehicles is relatively small.

 

Regarding the issue of the ban on the sale of fuel vehicles, not only Tokyo but the United Kingdom also plans to ban fuel vehicles in advance by 2030. Recently, the British Prime Minister publicly announced that he plans to advance the original ban on the sale of fuel vehicles by 10 years, starting from 2030. At the same time, France, Israel, Spain, and other countries have announced plans to phase out fuel vehicles between 2030 and 2040.

 

　　As the timetable for the ban on the sale of fuel vehicles in various countries around the world has been finalized one after another, major auto companies have also transformed their deployment of new energy vehicles. Volvo and Fiat have already stopped selling fuel vehicles in 2019. Leading car companies such as Honda and Volkswagen have also put plans to stop selling fuel vehicles on their agendas, and successively announced their own new energy plans.

 

It is worth mentioning that with regard to the ban on the sale of fuel vehicles, China’s Hainan Province will also stop selling fuel vehicles in 2030. Related organizations predict that China will achieve a complete withdrawal of traditional fuel vehicles before 2050, and complete the goal of banning the sale of fuel-based private cars around 2030. Although China is still far away from the launch of the "Fire Banning Timetable", according to official guidance and private research, the period for China to achieve this goal should be after 2035 and before 2050.