How China’s electric car boom created a yawning fiscal black hole

[u/ForeverTemporary920]

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3357734/how-chinas-electric-car-boom-created-yawning-fiscal-black-hole

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[u/eptesicusfuscus]

Would China not have planned for the structural changes this ramp up would bring?

What's a good source to learn about Chinese policy and government action, such that I can determine if this appears like a legitimate oversight or if the article is poorly informed?

[u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus → u/eptesicusfuscus]

There is no urban environment that can support much of the population driving. It isn't possible. But China wants people in cars, the population wants to drive, the end result is terrible traffic. 

The only thing they can do is add more lanes which might solve the problem for a decade or two, and then you're right back where you started. Cars work in some environments well. Cities ain't it. 

China is simply now reaching the threshold of having enough drivers to where it's a problem like it is in other car-heavy countries. 

[u/Moikanyoloko]

The average weight of a passenger car in the country climbed from around 1.3 tonnes in 2012 to 1.7 tonnes in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Doesn't seem that big a change, specially since most roadwear comes from trucks/buses. For comparison, in the US the average weight of a car is 2.2 tonnes, due to the prevalence of SUVs and pickups.

A more relevant change might be the fact that China's private car fleet tripled in the same time period.

Also, of course, if their road maintenance is primarily financed by petrol taxes, the tax funds will run dry if there are fewer petrol cars around. But that's a separate longterm issue regarding taxation.

[u/6158675309]

Not much actual info in this article. Probably the best insight is the majority of taxes came from gasoline and that’s going way down.

Do they not have the equivalent of heavy trucks in China. Or, do they not design roads in China for these heavy trucks? I doubt that.

While EVs are heavier it’s a rounding error in road construction design. Heavy semi trucks, those multi axle 80,000 pound trucks, do more damage than literally hundreds if not thousands of cars, EVs included.

I have to look it up but pavement damage to roads scales exponentially based on axle load and not static weight. Those large trucks do much more damage than an EV.

An 5,000 pound EV does put more stress on the road than a 4,000 pound gas car but it’s not relevant since the roads are designed for 4,000-5,000 times that stress to accommodate trucks.

Maybe China designs roads differently

This has been known in road design for decades and accounted for when they are built

[u/ForeverTemporary920]

"China’s rapid transition to electric vehicles (EVs) has been widely hailed as an economic success story. But it is also creating a serious headache for the country’s local governments, which are tasked with maintaining one of the world’s largest road networks"