Shaping the future of electric vehicle development

Policymakers need to calculate and consider to shape the future of electric vehicle development. We should not follow a certain model in the world, because each country has different conditions.

Prof.Dr. Bui Van Ga (PhD in heat engines), former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, talks with the Government Electronic Newspaper about policy and institutional issues in electric vehicle development in Vietnam on the sidelines of the "Electric Vehicles" Conference organized by Hanoi University of Science and Technology (under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) on March 29.

Vietnam must go step by step

GS. Bui Van Ga assessed that the Government's promulgation of the Green Energy Conversion Program, reducing carbon and methane emissions of the transportation sector (Decision No. 876/QD-TTg dated July 22, 7) is very important. in line with the Net Zero goal that Vietnam has announced to the world community.

"The use of electric vehicles is not a matter of technology, but the infrastructure for us to use it is important, so it requires investment and calculation from the State", Professor. Ga emphasized.

Accordingly, first, there needs to be a policy to encourage electric vehicle users. Currently, many countries around the world have subsidized the cost of electric vehicles for people to use. However, when that support policy is not enough, additional environmental policies are needed. For example, if we apply Euro 6 emission standards, normal gasoline cars cannot meet them, then we will be forced to switch to electric cars, hybrid cars, and hydrogen cars.

Besides that, there is energy policy. However, currently, Power VIII planning has not been approved. Math problems will be posed continuously. That is, if we switch directly to using electric vehicles, where does that electricity come from, from renewable energy or coal power, electricity from fossil fuels? If we still use electricity produced from fossil fuels, switching to electric vehicles makes no sense. Because at the place of use we do not emit emissions, but at the place of electricity production we still emit C02. If you use renewable energy, wind power, solar power... then switching to electric vehicles will be effective.

Another problem is that if everyone switched to using electric cars and motorbikes, the electric capacity would increase greatly, at least 2-3 times higher than today, would we have enough electric energy to supply electricity? or not?

"All of this needs to be calculated and based on the State's long-term energy policy, not depending on automobile technology," Professor. Ga said.

Therefore, Vietnam must go step by step, not switching directly from gasoline cars to electric cars. Many countries are currently using hybrid cars (a combination of electric cars and gasoline cars), meaning that they prioritize running on electricity first, and when there is no electricity, they can still run on gasoline. Vietnam needs to have such an intermediate step until 2040, when the electricity infrastructure is fully developed, then switching to full electricity or hydrogen will be appropriate.

Another thing to note is that hydrogen production from offshore wind power is a huge advantage for Vietnam because our country has a long coastline. We should not be too dependent on battery electric vehicles but should also pay attention to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Because handling batteries after their expiration date is still a huge problem.

“Imagine when a large amount of batteries expire, how do we bury or dispose of them? If we use hydrogen, the handling problem is much easier, the level of C02 emissions over the entire car life cycle of hydrogen is much lower than using batteries", Professor. Ga said.

Therefore, policy makers need to calculate and consider to shape the future of electric vehicle development. We should not follow any model in the world, because each country has different conditions. The fact that many countries claim to switch to electric vehicles is entirely because they have prepared adequate infrastructure and energy policies, but in reality in Vietnam, switching to electric vehicles immediately is not possible and can cause disruption. chaos in the traffic system.

Businesses need know-how

For businesses that manufacture and produce electric vehicles, GS. Bui Van Ga noted that the manufacturing and production of electric vehicles is not as complicated as vehicles using internal combustion engines. Many companies can produce it because the modules are available, you just need to buy them, install them, calibrate them, and design them beautifully.

Therefore, for businesses that are early to catch the trend, accumulating experience is a good thing, but they need to focus on research and development (R&D) to focus on a certain secret such as batteries, or driving. automatically... only with know-how and monopoly can we stand firm and compete.

At the Conference, experts and scientists also focused on discussing: Smart mobility; electric and hybrid vehicles; vehicle connectivity and artificial intelligence technology; charging station infrastructure and integration with the power grid; Advanced technologies on electric vehicles...

All opinions say that, in addition to efforts to perfect promotion policies, change user awareness, as well as improve and invest in infrastructure construction, training quality human resources Higher education in universities needs to be paid more attention to meet the needs of the labor market in the 4.0 era of the automobile industry.

The article is taken from the Government Newspaper: https://baochinhphu.vn/dinh-hinh-tuong-lai-phat-trien-xe-dien-102230329153627896.htm