A while ago a friend of mine told me - and I may have this detail wrong because I’m not mechanically inclined - that a lot of Chinese automotive engines are 2 stroke (IIRC) engines which can’t be catalyzed and are very dirty. He said that often a new Chinese vehicle will admit pollutants at a rate hundreds of times what a modern western car would, and they’re not particularly inclined to change because their current methods are cheaper.
Is there any truth to that?
Not sure about cars but there sure are a lot of 2 stroke motorcycles and mopeds in China.
Is it true that the amount of pollutants they generate is many many times their western counterparts?
I can’t provide a cite, but I have heard our engineers say on more than one occasion that a new car today produces less pollution while being driven on a highway than a car from the 1960s or before did while parked. (due to a lack of evaporative controls on the old cars)
Two stroke engines are way way dirtier than any four stoke engine I have ever seen. I don’t even know if you can buy a 2 stroke weed eater any more in California.
I think that CA is (or has been) phasing out 2-strokes. That engine requires a 40:1 gas:oil mix, so it’s designed to burn oil, but if you are burning that much oil in a 4-stroke, you’ve got problems. Less moving parts, which makes 'em great for smaller engines, such as chainsaws and mowers and rickshaws.
The two stroke moped thing might have an element of truth to it, but then, it applies equally to most of the developing world, not just China.
Like a lot of things in China, it depends. At least here in Shanghai, all the really small bikes (IIRC 80cc or smaller) are either electric or natural gas. The 100 to 150 cc are natural gas or gasoline but are not 2 strokes burning the dirty gas.
Bigger engine bikes are not legal (in Shanghai), although there are still a few of the old 500 or 800 cc motorcycles with sidecars based on ancient Russian designs. These are dirty pigs with almost no power.
For the whole country, I think it is mandated that the little stuff is all electric or natural gas.
The bad polluters are big trucks and buses, and crappy 2 stroke farming engines. I’ve seen lots of press here about cleaning up these offenders. Slowly shutting down the factories and or converting them to better and cleaner engines.
This is definately recognized as a problem and is slowly being cleaned up.
I remember in the late 1980’s that 2 stroke motorcycles and scooters were horrible polluters in Taipei. Taipei used to rank with Mexico City as being the most polluted city at the time. Taiwan phased out the 2 stroke motorcycles, and put in a mass transit system in Taipei, and both the pollution and traffic in Taipei is markedly improved from 2 decades ago.
No, 2-stroke engines in the west pollute just as badly.
But there are a lot more of them used in China than in the west. In the USA, they are mostly used for cheapo lawnmowers, snomobiles, 3-wheelers, & small motorcycles/mopeds. Better quality ones generally use a 4-stroke engine. But the poverty level in China means a whole lot more 2-stroke engines in use.
What I meant to ask is if it’s accurate to say that the pollutants from an equivelant 2-stroke engine are hundreds of times greater than one from a modern 4 stroke engine.
Do the Chinese use regular gasoline and catalytic converters in their cars?
Yes. AFAIK, the only countries where leaded gas is common are, get this, in the Mid-East. Strange, I know. At one point in time, the Chinese were supposed to mandate all new cars were to run on LNG, but I don’t know if that went through or not. Chinese fuel economy standards are stricter than those in the US.