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BYD wins Schiphol contract: 35 pure electric buses for airside service


Fast growing automotive supplier BYD has scored a major victory - it has been selected to supply a new fleet of electric buses to transfer passengers between the terminals and aircraft at Europe's leading airport, Amsterdam Schiphol. The emission free BYD ebus models, due to enter service in July 2014, will replace an ageing fleet of specialised conventionally powered buses.

The SUBSS Project (SUstainable Bus System Schiphol) aims to provide a new generation of emission free airside transfer vehicles which will reduce bus maintenance and management costs and improve air quality by reducing the emission of CO2 and NOx.

The BYD ebus is a full size single deck bus which has completed more than 17 million kilometres in passenger carrying services and has been trialled in major cities across Europe.

BYD is rolling out a wide range of pure electric vehicles, including buses and taxis, as part of its Green City Solutions programme. All these vehicles use the company's advanced and environmentally friendly iron-phosphate Fe batteries for their power.

Jos Nijhuis, CEO & President Schiphol Group said, "Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will be the first airport in the world making bus transport at airside electric. After a European open tender, the contract was awarded to the best bid in terms of quality, energy performance and price. The switch to electric buses will help us in creating a healthier and more pleasant environment for travellers and employees alike. The buses will be put into operation in 2014, making transportation at the airport more environmentally friendly and more sustainable."

Some of the current buses at the airport are approaching the end of their technical service life, mainly because of wear and tear of the fossil fuel engines which rarely reach optimal operating temperatures on short journeys from terminal to aircraft. This results in high maintenance costs and poor emissions performance. Research has shown that passengers consider the inhaling of emissions to be very annoying. The current buses have also proved to be too big at 14 metres long and 2.7 metres wide for the Schiphol airside infrastructure, resulting in regular accidental damage.

The emissions free BYD ebus is 12m metres long - the same size as normal buses operating on city streets. It can drive for 250 km even in heavy city traffic after one full charge although, as a recent test journey achieving 310km and using only 60% of the battery charge in Poland showed, this may be a conservative figure.

 

[kroko]

It seems that the chinese government is getting worried about the potencial local government debt. They are ordering an "urgent" local-government debt audit.

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[A.Man]

Another Perspective:

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China's 260 million new spenders may help avert 'hard landing'
Text Size Published: Monday, 29 Jul 2013 | 6:46 AM ET By: Dhara Ranasinghe | Senior Writer
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Thomas Craig | Photolibrary | Getty Images
Steps that encourage China's 260 million migrant workers to settle into cities should help turn them into urban spenders and underpin growth amid worries of a sharp slowdown in the world's second biggest economy, a new report from HSBC suggests.


China's economy grew an annual 7.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, slowing for a second straight quarter, while recent weak economic numbers have fanned concerns about a hard landing or steep slowdown in the Asian powerhouse.

(Read More: Fuzzy numbers? Real China growth only half: Expert)

Analysts at HSBC said that the hard landing worries are overblown as China is still in a position to buffer the slowdown with stimulus measures. They add that Beijing can also undertake steps that unleash the growth potential of urbanization.

"Encouraging migrant workers to settle in cities will help turn them into urban spenders, hence lifting private consumption," HSBC said in the note published on Monday.

"Meanwhile, access to better welfare will lure more surplus farmers to urban sectors, especially considering the large rural-urban income gap. We expect another 100 million people to leave their villages for cities in the next decade, providing a new source of sustained growth in labor productivity and, therefore, the economy," they said.

China's urbanization rate, the percentage of the total population that lives in urban areas, rose to 52 percent last year from 20 percent in 1980. But the real ratio is probably about 35 percent because most of the 260 million rural migrant workers have not yet settled into cities, according to HSBC.

Analysts said that Beijing's urbanization plan is key to turning migrant workers into city dwellers whose consumption should help bolster the economy.
Play VideoRelax, here's why China's debt is manageable
Eddie Tam, CEO at Central Asset Investments explains why he isn't concerned about China's total government debt.After three decades of rapid expansion, China's government is trying to shift the focus of the economy away from investment and exports to consumption in a bid to put the economy on a more secure long-term footing.

(Read More: What might China's government debt audit reveal?)

HSBC identifies a couple of steps in Beijing's urbanization program that are especially important such as reforming the household registration system which it says would help remove social welfare and other types of discrimination against migrant workers.

"Land reform is also essential because it will not only encourage migrant workers to settle in cities, but lift agricultural productivity," HSBC said. "We expect Beijing to start a pilot program of land reform in the coming months."

China's new generation of leaders,who officially assumed power in March after a period of transition, have shown some signs of stepping up the pace of economic reforms as well as tolerating a slower pace of growth to allow a structural adjustment in the economy to take place.

At the same time Beijing has made some efforts to ease concerns about a hard landing for the economy, introducing a mini package of stimulus measures earlier this month.

(Read More: China fires growth salvo, is monetary easing next?

—By CNBC's Dhara Ranasinghe; Follow her on Twitter @DharaCNBC

 

[Equation]

It seems that the chinese government is getting worried about the potencial local government debt. They are ordering an "urgent" local-government debt audit.

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"A nationwide audit conducted in 2011 found that China's local governments' debt totaled 10.7 trillion yuan (1.73 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2010."

$1.73 Trillion dollars is not bad of debt when you compared it to Japan ($10 Trillion) and the US ($16 Trillion) without having implanting any kind of new taxes yet.

 

[A.Man]

Paris ramps up tourist security amid Chinese concerns

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Fri Aug 2, 2013 2:09pm EDT

* Interior and tourism ministers vow to protect visitors

* Rash of muggings of Chinese tourists a growing concern

* Luxury firms fear big spenders could be scared off

By Natalie Huet

PARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) - France said on Friday it would work harder to safeguard tourists in Paris after a spate of muggings of Asian visitors made such headlines in China that the Chinese embassy demanded action.

Interior and Tourism Ministers Manuel Valls and Sylvia Pinel said on a tour of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower that 200 police had been put on patrol to protect tourists and steps were being taken to help foreigners prevent and report crime.

France is the world's most-visited country and solid tourism revenues are a bright spot in its depressed economy.

But reports of pickpockets and muggers targeting Chinese tourists have soared of late, tarnishing the French capital's image as a favoured destination for love-struck couples and high-end shoppers.

"Paris is a safe city. What we want to say today is: tourists and friends from all over the world, come to Paris, welcome to Paris, bienvenido a Paris!" Valls told journalists.

Petty crimes against Chinese nationals jumped 22 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, a Paris police official told Reuters. He said Asian tourists were targeted because they were known to carry a lot of cash on them.

Staff at the Louvre went on strike in April over a surge in pickpockets, shutting the world's most-visited museum for a day.

Security guards say Chinese tourists visiting France for the first time seem to get more easily distracted than more seasoned European tourists when gazing at works like the Mona Lisa.

Police recently issued a "Guide to staying safe in Paris" - translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish - advising tourists to carry a minimum of cash, favour small banknotes and watch out for gangs of teenagers, commonly from eastern Europe, who pick pockets while conducting phoney petitions.

At the Louvre, tourists can now file legal complaints directly on site in 16 languages without going to the police.

Some 1.4 million Chinese visited France last year, up 23 pct from 2011. Millionaires in China rate it their top destination.

But a group of 75 French luxury brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hermes warned in May that Chinese buyers, the world's top spenders, risk favouring London or Milan as they view Paris as dangerous.

In March, a group of 23 Chinese were robbed within hours of landing in Paris. In June, six Chinese wine-making students were assaulted in Bordeaux in an attack Valls called "xenophobic".

The Chinese embassy has pressed French authorities in recent months to address the issue, which was also raised when Socialist President Francois Hollande last traveled to China in April to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.

Jean-Francois Zhou, head of Ansel travel agency which runs tours to and from China, said he advised clients not to take the metro or leave their hotel at night. His tour guides pepper their talk with warnings like "pickpockets to your right".

"It's a killjoy," he said. "These visitors have big dreams about Paris but things like this smash their illusions." ($1 = 0.7557 euros) (Reporting by Natalie Huet; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

[pissybits]

[I originally posted this in the thread on the West's misconceptions on China, but it is actually more relevant to the topic of this thread. There is alot of confusion and misrepresentation in the media about just how the Chinese economy is doing. China is now reaching a critical juncture in its economic development that will have a huge impact on its future prosperity. As a student of economics, I want to separate the chaff from the kernel and share some underlying facts about the current Chinese economy that I believe are important for every Chinese (and non-Chinese) to understand]

Without a procedural justification for its legitimacy, the Chinese government today mainly bases its legitimacy on its ability to improve living standards. However in the face of runaway domestic inequality and weakened overseas consumer demand, maintaining steady improvents in the living standard inevitably takes a more sustainable basis than growth led by investment and exports. In fact, the recent news about slowing growth in China only proves that weak demand overseas and rising standards in China mean that the investment led growth pioneered by Deng Xiaoping is no longer sustainable.

For 30 years, enough wealth has trickled down from this strategy of investment led growth and "letting some people get rich first" that China has been able to improve its living standard across the board. However now that this is no longer possible, they must shift the economy toward domestic consumption (by freeing up financial capital to small enterprises, making lending easier, etc) and let the rest of society get richer.

These 30 years saw the rise of a political elite that have become addicted to Deng's investment led growth simply because it allows them huge profits and graft. These economic/political elites have monopolized power and industry in ways that benefit themselves and their cronies first and foremost while relaying the cost to the average Chinese citizen. (state owned banks give out loans at negative interest rate to sham/unprofitable but connected companies) This means that massive cutbacks can be embezzled directly from funds earmarked for development with impunity while the people end up having to foot the bill, as they simply print more money, make lending extremely difficult to small/private enterprises, and suppress wage growth- serving a secondary function of keeping the Yuan low and exports competitive.

Until now, the huge inefficiency arising from this type of corruption could be tolerated because on an aggregate level, there was still enough capital being generated (via export revenues and foreign direct investment) to raise living standards. The credit crunch around the globe means that the political elite can no longer afford this type of corruption at the core of business and still be able to pay out increasing (if diminished) dividends to the average worker. However to reform the market is not so easy, because growing the domestic market entails freeing up lending and reforming property rights and above all, laws to regulate accountable business practices. Those same political elites that have monopolized industry and power are reluctant to make such changes because:

1. They can no longer line their own pockets and the pockets of their cronies as easily with the enforcement of financial accountability.

2. Their relative power becomes diminished when capital flows more freely and the private sector becomes more powerful.

If the Chinese economy can truly make such a transition, we will inevitably see a more just and transparent society (to enable it) and more pluralism in the political landscape (the result of more capital in the hands of small enterprises and the private sector)

China's conundrum is that in order to facilitate such a change, the guys who have all the aces now have to give some away, and they (understandably) really don't want to. As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that Xi's administration has both the political will and the sway to make these reforms. (they say they do) If they cannot, not only will China become mired in the middle-income trap, but the stability of the state also comes under risk.

PS- Freeing up lending and growing the domestic consumer economy means that they need to make sure that property rights and business standards are enforced at the lower levels, Chinese courts as of now are under the control of the CCP which means that their decisions on many matters (especially business) are inherently politically motivated and thus cannot be impartial.
Say what you will about whether electoral politics are good for China, (maybe not at this stage is my own thought) but I contend to the death that a free and independent judiciary is a MUST for any just society, but sadly this is part of the conundrum of the people in charge not wanting to give up some power and not wanting to be held accountable for their actions.

 

[pissybits]

^^^
Basically what i wanted to say is that:

1. china's investment/export led growth model is no longer sustainable

2. if they want to be able to continue to achieve growth and raise incomes, they have to switch to domestic consumption

3. to grow the domestic market means that lending must become available to small businesses/private enterprises thru banking reform, and that financial accountability/business standards must be enforcable

4. however making such reforms means that SOEs and connected but inefficient enterprises can no longer get ridiculously low (even negative) interest rates when lending from banks, and that the justice system must be fixed so it is more impartial/transparent

5. this means that alot of people in charge who have benefited tremendously from Deng's investment/export regime will have to give up their stranglehold on the economy, (an obstacle) and that the CCP must allow a more independent judiciary. (an even bigger obstacle)

If china cannot change in these ways, and the global economic climate continues, (weak demand in developed countries, rising wages in developing countries) it will become stuck in the middle income trap, meaning that a few elites will have sacrificed china's future for their own greed.

 

[Equation]

^^^
Basically what i wanted to say is that:

1. china's investment/export led growth model is no longer sustainable

2. if they want to be able to continue to achieve growth and raise incomes, they have to switch to domestic consumption

3. to grow the domestic market means that lending must become available to small businesses/private enterprises thru banking reform, and that financial accountability/business standards must be enforcable

4. however making such reforms means that SOEs and connected but inefficient enterprises can no longer get ridiculously low (even negative) interest rates when lending from banks, and that the justice system must be fixed so it is more impartial/transparent

5. this means that alot of people in charge who have benefited tremendously from Deng's investment/export regime will have to give up their stranglehold on the economy, (an obstacle) and that the CCP must allow a more independent judiciary. (an even bigger obstacle)

If china cannot change in these ways, and the global economic climate continues, (weak demand in developed countries, rising wages in developing countries) it will become stuck in the middle income trap, meaning that a few elites will have sacrificed china's future for their own greed.

[I originally posted this in the thread on the West's misconceptions on China, but it is actually more relevant to the topic of this thread. There is alot of confusion and misrepresentation in the media about just how the Chinese economy is doing. China is now reaching a critical juncture in its economic development that will have a huge impact on its future prosperity. As a student of economics, I want to separate the chaff from the kernel and share some underlying facts about the current Chinese economy that I believe are important for every Chinese (and non-Chinese) to understand]

Without a procedural justification for its legitimacy, the Chinese government today mainly bases its legitimacy on its ability to improve living standards. However in the face of runaway domestic inequality and weakened overseas consumer demand, maintaining steady improvents in the living standard inevitably takes a more sustainable basis than growth led by investment and exports. In fact, the recent news about slowing growth in China only proves that weak demand overseas and rising standards in China mean that the investment led growth pioneered by Deng Xiaoping is no longer sustainable.

For 30 years, enough wealth has trickled down from this strategy of investment led growth and "letting some people get rich first" that China has been able to improve its living standard across the board. However now that this is no longer possible, they must shift the economy toward domestic consumption (by freeing up financial capital to small enterprises, making lending easier, etc) and let the rest of society get richer.

These 30 years saw the rise of a political elite that have become addicted to Deng's investment led growth simply because it allows them huge profits and graft. These economic/political elites have monopolized power and industry in ways that benefit themselves and their cronies first and foremost while relaying the cost to the average Chinese citizen. (state owned banks give out loans at negative interest rate to sham/unprofitable but connected companies) This means that massive cutbacks can be embezzled directly from funds earmarked for development with impunity while the people end up having to foot the bill, as they simply print more money, make lending extremely difficult to small/private enterprises, and suppress wage growth- serving a secondary function of keeping the Yuan low and exports competitive.

Until now, the huge inefficiency arising from this type of corruption could be tolerated because on an aggregate level, there was still enough capital being generated (via export revenues and foreign direct investment) to raise living standards. The credit crunch around the globe means that the political elite can no longer afford this type of corruption at the core of business and still be able to pay out increasing (if diminished) dividends to the average worker. However to reform the market is not so easy, because growing the domestic market entails freeing up lending and reforming property rights and above all, laws to regulate accountable business practices. Those same political elites that have monopolized industry and power are reluctant to make such changes because:

1. They can no longer line their own pockets and the pockets of their cronies as easily with the enforcement of financial accountability.

2. Their relative power becomes diminished when capital flows more freely and the private sector becomes more powerful.

If the Chinese economy can truly make such a transition, we will inevitably see a more just and transparent society (to enable it) and more pluralism in the political landscape (the result of more capital in the hands of small enterprises and the private sector)

China's conundrum is that in order to facilitate such a change, the guys who have all the aces now have to give some away, and they (understandably) really don't want to. As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that Xi's administration has both the political will and the sway to make these reforms. (they say they do) If they cannot, not only will China become mired in the middle-income trap, but the stability of the state also comes under risk.

PS- Freeing up lending and growing the domestic consumer economy means that they need to make sure that property rights and business standards are enforced at the lower levels, Chinese courts as of now are under the control of the CCP which means that their decisions on many matters (especially business) are inherently politically motivated and thus cannot be impartial.
Say what you will about whether electoral politics are good for China, (maybe not at this stage is my own thought) but I contend to the death that a free and independent judiciary is a MUST for any just society, but sadly this is part of the conundrum of the people in charge not wanting to give up some power and not wanting to be held accountable for their actions.

If China did that it would end up like the EU and US bankers with financial problems and ruled by a corporate elite. Who's going to keep an eye on those "free and independent judiciary" from being corrupt as well? A lot of these SME (small medium enterprises) are not investing in high tech job creating industry, instead they're invest it in quick profit real estate and development that can lead to high inflation and prices for gas and materials because shortage in supply with extremely high demand. That would put a strain on the infrastructure and not to mention if those development don't get a return those real estate investments than you end up with a huge property bubble ready to bust. Whatever the Chinese government are doing, keep doing it, don't listen to any of these so called "experts" who always gets it wrong about China.

 

[pissybits]

If China did that it would end up like the EU and US bankers with financial problems and ruled by a corporate elite. Who's going to keep an eye on those "free and independent judiciary" from being corrupt as well? A lot of these SME (small medium enterprises) are not investing in high tech job creating industry, instead they're invest it in quick profit real estate and development that can lead to high inflation and prices for gas and materials because shortage in supply with extremely high demand. That would put a strain on the infrastructure and not to mention if those development don't get a return those real estate investments than you end up with a huge property bubble ready to bust. Whatever the Chinese government are doing, keep doing it, don't listen to any of these so called "experts" who always gets it wrong about China.

Fact of the matter is, China is already ruled by a corporate elite, albeit state owned/state connected. The problem with the U.S. is actually similar to China in that its financial sector has been deregulated to the point that it can behave irresponsibly, write its own rules, and buy out the government. (thanks to Mr. Reagan) In both cases, it's a small group of elites that have monopolized the market and are making upward mobility difficult for the rest of us by cheating the system.

In China, there is already a property bubble created primarily by local governments, corrupt officials and their connected businesses. I agree with you that if lending were made easier now, this bubble would probably get worse, but I believe that the government can give incentives for firms to invest in R&D and job creating industries instead if they wanted to. (the advantage of autocracy)

I don't know exactly how China could create a free and independent judiciary, in the West, selecting nonpartisan and impartial judges has always been a tough issue and tackled with many different methods with varying degrees of success. Regardless of how judges can be made impartial, (intense public scrutiny, diversity of backgrounds, popular election of judiciary, etc) decoupling the court system from the CCP and making trials and judge selection more accessible to the public is the first step. Right now, the courts just about ALWAYS rule in favor of the Party and the well connected; the West also faces issues with judicial impartiality, but in China they are multiplied 10-fold.

 

[Hendrik_2000]

Fact of the matter is, China is already ruled by a corporate elite, albeit state owned/state connected. The problem with the U.S. is actually similar to China in that its financial sector has been deregulated to the point that it can behave irresponsibly, write its own rules, and buy out the government. (thanks to Mr. Reagan) In both cases, it's a small group of elites that have monopolized the market and are making upward mobility difficult for the rest of us by cheating the system.

In China, there is already a property bubble created primarily by local governments, corrupt officials and their connected businesses. I agree with you that if lending were made easier now, this bubble would probably get worse, but I believe that the government can give incentives for firms to invest in R&D and job creating industries instead if they wanted to. (the advantage of autocracy)

I don't know exactly how China could create a free and independent judiciary, in the West, selecting nonpartisan and impartial judges has always been a tough issue and tackled with many different methods with varying degrees of success. Regardless of how judges can be made impartial, (intense public scrutiny, diversity of backgrounds, popular election of judiciary, etc) decoupling the court system from the CCP and making trials and judge selection more accessible to the public is the first step. Right now, the courts just about ALWAYS rule in favor of the Party and the well connected; the West also faces issues with judicial impartiality, but in China they are multiplied 10-fold.

Reading your comment it make me believe that you buy the western propaganda machine roll, stock and barrel. i can understand that being young and impressionable.you buy those propaganda

All your comment seem to come from the book of western media. Now I was curious why the same media doesn't criticize their own government and political system when they were now mired in economic.political malaise for 5 years, while China GDP has been grow for 40% int the mean time .They relish in the story of ant population but forgetting that youth unemployment in Spain reach 50%

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Now let talk about corruption you diagnose the symptom but you are completely wrong as to the cause of disease.When it come to corruption China is not even the worst offender Transparency international rank China 80 out of 160 somewhere in the middle. In fact China keep climbing the index ladder year after year

In

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Any developing country where the norm and law is not well established, and too much money sloshing around because of development, you will have corruption whether it is democracy or not. India has even worst ranking in corruption then do china so do Indonesia, Philippine and many many other countries.

They have independent judiciary why can they stop the corruption?. So your contention that independent judiciary is the panacea for corruption is totally hogwash.
Anyway the idea of Judiciary as final arbiter of dispute is only illusion. I don[t know where you come form but having your case heard in the court is expensive preposition. Only when the lawyer or law firm have a possibility of winning in the court and bring rich reward of taking the cut on penalty , are they willing to take the case.
Ever heard the adage that only rich people can get justice

Only small percentage of Real Estate development can be considered as mismanagement of resource . They are not bought using zero down payment. Instead they are bought by cash for people with excess money .So the comparison with western home foreclosure is inappropriate. and not to forget China demand 30 now 50% down payment it won't hurt the bank. They only lost 50 cents out of 1 dollar. If that happened China can easily clean up the bad asset of the bank It happened before and now China bank is the largest and most profitable in the world

Now you say US law is hundred time better than China What happened to those greedy banker and rating agency who clearly cause the massive economic downturn in history .Well they still enjoy their Bahamas vacation homes.
Considering they case million to loose their live saving and million more loose their jobs they should be prosecuted to the full length of the law but no such thing happened.Talk about fairness and justices.

So I suggest to you do the critical thinking and have different view of the world. Listen to this excellent presentation by Eric Li. You will find the answer to all you question and don't just mouth western propaganda lines

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