# Will Tesla follow BYD?

By [Bryan](https://paragraph.com/@bryan-5) · 2022-05-22

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The pollution problem of new energy vehicles has surfaced.

Three days after being on the hot search list, BYD’s Changsha plant, which was exposed to pollution incidents, has undergone new changes. According to the report of securities times · e company, on May 10, some production lines of BYD Changsha factory have been shut down for rectification. In the past two months, thousands of residents in more than a dozen communities around BYD’s factory in Yuhua District, Changsha jointly reported that they often smell strong paint smell. According to Phoenix technology, the paint smell is the most serious from the evening to the early morning, and hundreds of children have experienced unexplained epistaxis. After the topic of “suspected nosebleed of many children caused by BYD factory pollution” was put on the hot search, on the same day of May 7, BYD Changsha Yuhua District Industrial Park issued a statement, which did not deny the existence of peculiar smell around the factory and said that “the company has taken relevant measures and actively improved it”. However, for the situation of “nosebleed caused by excessive emission”, the statement said that “it is a malicious fabricated Association and has been reported to the police.” On May 8, the Changsha Government Affairs official account “couch cloth” issued a document saying that the Changsha Municipal Party committee and government had set up an investigation team and stationed in BYD Yuhua District factory to investigate. Relevant media reports pointed out that the source of the odor, or the coating workshop of BYD Yuhua District factory. In fact, BYD has a “criminal record” in this regard. In 2019, Changsha BYD was regarded as a key complained enterprise and included in the key supervision object due to the impact of pollutants discharged from the production waste gas of the spraying workshop on the lives of nearby residents. An employee of a car company in Beijing told boxed lunch finance that painting, electroplating and other links will indeed affect the environment. “Because of environmental protection requirements, we have no painting factories in Beijing, and the corresponding businesses are given to factories in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.” According to Chinese philanthropists, citing the views of people in the automobile industry, the coating process of automobile production will produce a large number of pollutants. If not handled properly, it will have an impact on the surrounding atmosphere and water. Among them, the paint waste gas mainly comes from the volatile waste gas produced by the organic solvent contained in the paint during spraying and drying, which is called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and the main components are benzene, toluene, xylene, etc. The employees of the above car enterprises also said that there was no corresponding fact and it was impossible to confirm that the odor came from BYD production line. China Securities Journal reported on May 8 that some peculiar smell near the factory may be diesel exhaust and engine oil, and the source of the peculiar smell cannot be confirmed. In an interview with China Securities Journal, the staff of the Management Committee of Changsha Yuhua Economic Development Zone said, “we will find a third-party testing institution recognized by the surrounding residents to participate… But the truth needs to be carefully investigated.” 01

When buying a car, few consumers will be aware of the pollution behind the beautiful appearance of the car. Painting on the car surface has two functions: one is decoration, and the other is to protect the car body from corrosion; But on the other hand, coating is also a serious part of exhaust gas in automobile production process. “Paint smell” is the core of the public opinion storm around BYD. Before that, there were many disputes about its coating workshop. In 2019, Changsha BYD was complained about waste gas pollution in the spraying workshop and was included in the key supervision object of local relevant departments. According to a document on the official website of Hunan Provincial Department of ecological environment, the serious paint smell in the coating workshop of BYD Yuhua District factory is basically true, and the document date is May 8, 2021. According to an EIA report in December 2021, the waste gas from the electrophoresis process in the coating workshop was directly and unorganized discharged by BYD Changsha factory in the early stage without collection. In addition, the types and values of 24 organic substances in the report were not disclosed. In three years, the problem of coating workshop has not been solved. BYD’s environmental protection issues have always been highly concerned. Since November 2011, BYD and its affiliated companies have been punished by relevant departments for environmental protection for many times. The reasons for punishment include excessive toluene discharge, excessive exhaust gas discharge, direct discharge of wastewater and other issues. Not only BYD, but also its competitor Tesla has recently attracted criticism for paint related problems. According to foreign media electek reported on May 4, the German environmental protection organization Green Alliance asked to revoke the business license of Tesla’s super factory in Berlin, Germany after learning of a serious paint leakage accident. Previously, the organization had asked the local court to stop the Tesla Berlin plant project for reasons such as deforestation and water resources control, which is also a major reason why Tesla didn’t get the business license of the local plant until this year. Electek quoted German media rbb24 as saying that the 15000 liters of paint leaked by Tesla had been properly handled, and only 2 to 3 liters fell on the road and solidified during loading. The leakage is considered to have slight harm to the water body. Although it did not enter the sewage or sewer system in the end, the green alliance still requires relevant institutions to revoke Tesla’s factory license until Tesla completes the laying of some unpaved areas around the paint workshop to prevent dangerous materials from entering the aquifer. A source disclosed to electek that the coating workshop is the main bottleneck of the production capacity of Tesla Berlin super factory. In the past two years, Tesla, weixiaoli and other auto companies have expanded their factories in China. Why is only BYD involved in the vortex of pollution? At present, the investigation of relevant facts has not been completed, but many industry people in contact with boxed lunch finance believe that too close to residential areas and the rapid expansion of production capacity are two possible factors. According to the national standard for health protection distance of automobile manufacturers, considering the influence of wind direction, terrain and other factors, the distance between the factory and the residential area should range from 300m to 500m. Some residents involved in the incident are only one road away from the factory, only 40 to 50 meters away, and the nearby Jiahe school is only 300 meters away from the factory. According to a research report of the environmental protection organization green Jiangnan and Public Environment Research Center (IPE), in 2016, a Toyota supplier was fined 100000 yuan by the local regulatory authorities for being complained by surrounding residents about excessive exhaust gas. The report shows that the supplier’s factory is only one road from the residential area. If the factory is too close to the residential area, it is easy to affect the living conditions of residents. Other new car building forces have also considered relevant factors in the site selection of self built factories. Take Xiaopeng as an example. Xiaopeng’s self built factory is located in Zhaoqing, Guangzhou. According to the environmental impact report of Zhaoqing Xiaopeng automobile intelligent network technology industrial park project released by Zhaoqing high tech network, the recent residential areas and

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*Originally published on [Bryan](https://paragraph.com/@bryan-5/will-tesla-follow-byd)*