Belgium's ports drowning under glut of Chinese electric cars: 'Some are parked here for a year, sometimes more'

Le Monde ^ | May 4, 2024 | Jean-Pierre Stroobants

[Red Badger]

Due to China's overcapacity in production – as it aims to capture a quarter of the European electric vehicle market – the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge are inundated.

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https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2024/05/04/belgium-s-ports-drowning-under-glut-of-chinese-electric-cars-some-are-parked-here-for-a-year-sometimes-a-year-and-a-half_6670373_19.html

A large number of Chinese-made cars are being gathered at Yantai Port for shipment for export in Yantai, Shandong Province, China, on April 12, 2024. CFOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP You probably need to see it to appreciate the challenges the automobile industry faces in transitioning to electricity. You also need to come here to understand how the Chinese industry's overcapacity has flooded the European market. That morning, as the sun unexpectedly lit up the maze of highways leading to this remote arm of the port of Antwerp, Belgium, a huge cargo ship from the Norwegian company Höegh Autoliners unloaded thousands of cars at one of the terminals of International Car Operators (ICO), a subsidiary of the Japanese group Nippon Yusen Kaisha.

Alongside Swedish-Norwegian Wallenius Wilhelmsen, it is one of the main operators of the now merged port of Antwerp-Bruges, the world's largest automotive terminal, through which the production of some 40 brands used to transit. But that was before the emergence of their Chinese competitors.

At Calloo, near Antwerp, and Zeebrugge, on the North Sea coast, huge parking lots can accommodate some 130,000 vehicles, but they now find themselves too cramped. In 2022, 3.4 million vehicles passed through the two ports. Since then, the market has evolved further, challenges have multiplied and operators are doing their best to resolve vehicle storage issues.

In front of the carefully guarded gates of ICO in Calloo, cars of all make are lined up as far as the eye can see before being loaded onto trucks from Italy, the UK, Poland, and Germany. In the foreground are models that are often still unknown to the general public. "All Chinese. I prefer German cars," grumbled Rinus De Vries, a Dutch truck driver waiting in his cab.

MG, BYD, Nio, XPeng, Lynk & Co, Omoda, Hongqi, etc. A dozen Chinese automakers have launched a commercial offensive to export nearly 4.1 million cars by 2023 (+ 58% in one year). They aim to conquer a European market undergoing rapid change, thanks in part to the subsidies available in several countries for the purchase of electric vehicles.

[Tell It Right]

Don't be surprised if in the near future, there are a significant number of EV owners who are conservative/libertarian with a bit of a prepper mindset. At least here in the south where some of us can meet most of our power needs with solar. It's why one of our cars is an EV (the main one we drive in).

I simply can't drill my own oil and refine it into gas (to fuel a gas car and be mostly self-reliant with my transportation) like I can produce power to charge our EV. Of all the miles we drove it in the past 12 months, 15K of them were charged at home. Of all the power my home needed in the past 12 months (including charging the EV), 80% of it was homemade power (the other 20% had to be pulled from the grid).

If I'm right that the Dims will keep pushing their warmageddon cult to use their energy policies to slowly control us more and more with energy price inflation and regulating how much access we each have, then those of us unhappy with government control will be making ourselves less dependent on the public energy market. Put another way, think prepping, not for total collapse of society (like surviving in a Mad Max movie with a year supply of food and such), but against the slow boil killing the frog by making us chose more and more to give up our freedoms to enjoy the comforts in life.

[Jacquerie]

<>The batteries are sealed.<>

Apparently, they are inadequately sealed.

From August 2023:

Floridians battered by Hurricane Idalia this week may not have expected another threat — that floodwaters could cause their cars to suddenly burst into flames.

Yet that's exactly what happened when two electric vehicles caught fire after being submerged in saltwater churned up by the storm. Firefighters in Palm Harbor, Florida, cited the incidents, both of which involved Teslas, in warning owners that their rechargeable car batteries could combust if exposed to saltwater.

Fires can ignite weeks after flooding.

Electric vehicles exposed to saltwater can burst into flames.

Oh.

[TexasGator]

“Apparently, they are inadequately sealed.”

The government bought a bunch of submerged Teslas and tore them apart. Water intrusion into the battery compartment was due to failed seal due to design and installation problems,

[Lurker]

There’s a huge difference between trolling and making an astute observation.

For the record I did the latter.

L

[TexasGator]

How many years have you been trolling me?

[Lurker]

Once again, it’s not a troll.

It’s an observation.

L

[TexasGator]

you ducked the question ...

[Lurker]

No, I did not.

L

[Svartalfiar]

That morning, as the sun unexpectedly lit up the maze of highways leading to this remote arm of the port of Antwerp, Belgium,

What? Do they not normally get the sun every morning in Belgium...?

[Red Badger]

No....................😎