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After the BYD "sewage door" incident in Changsha attracted public attention, the owners of the R & F Metro District in Guangzhou Development Zone could not sit still, fearing that the same thing would happen to them. According to Phoenix New Media Finance and Finance and other media reports, the "Guangzhou Automobile Honda New Energy vehicle capacity expansion Project" is less than 100 meters from residential areas and kindergartens, and local residents think that its location planning is unreasonable. It will cause air, groundwater, noise and other pollution to the surrounding community.

Guangzhou Auto Honda Motor Co., Ltd. sold the industrial land to the south of Guangyuan Expressway and east of Dongpeng Avenue in Huangpu District of Guangzhou City for 242.79 million yuan in November, according to the official website of the government of Huangpu District, Guangzhou. According to the information from the Administrative examination and approval Bureau of Guangzhou Development Zone, in March 2022, Guangzhou Automobile Honda Automobile Co., Ltd. plans to build Guangzhou Automobile Honda New Energy vehicles (annual production capacity of 120000 vehicles) on land south of Guangyuan Expressway in Huangpu District of Guangzhou City and east of Dongpeng Avenue. Pre-approval public announcement of the construction project, the total investment of the project is about 3 billion yuan, with a planned production capacity of 120000 vehicles per year.

However, the "Guangzhou Automobile Honda New Energy vehicle capacity expansion Project" has aroused dissatisfaction among local owners because the factory is close to residential areas and schools. According to the Environmental impact report released by Guangzhou Automobile Honda, villages, residential areas and schools, including R & F Metro, Yantian Village, Bicun apartment, Kindergarten, and Eastern Primary School, have become environmentally sensitive points near the project, with the factory boundary less than 100 meters away from residential areas such as Yantian Village and R & F Metro, and the painting workshop that emits pollutants is only about 500 meters away from R & F Metro.

As a result, the local owners questioned the reasonableness and compliance of the project, believing that the capacity expansion project of Guangzhou Automobile and Honda had not been fully publicized and consulted surrounding residents, and that the planning and location was unreasonable. It does not meet the protective distance requirements of the 13th five-year Plan, and the environmental pollution such as waste water and exhaust gas, increased traffic flow and noise pollution brought about by the project will have a serious impact on the lives of nearby residents. Judging from the photos taken by the owners, the construction site downstairs is the planned expansion factory on the left, and the existing plant area of Guangzhou Auto Honda on the right. Up to now, because the expansion of the plant may cause pollution problems, contradictions and disputes between local owners and Guangzhou Development Zone Administrative examination and approval Bureau have been going on for more than a year. At the same time, the corresponding problems will be reflected to local leaders on the people's Daily online-leadership message board.

In fact, with regard to the possible impact of the expansion project on the surrounding environment, Guangzhou Auto Honda has issued an Environmental impact report of nearly 700 pages, which assesses the environmental impact of atmosphere, surface water, groundwater, sound, solid waste and soil. According to the Environmental impact report, the construction of the project meets the requirements of relevant industrial policies and environmental protection policies, as well as the overall urban planning and environmental protection planning. The external environmental impact is acceptable and the environmental risk can be prevented and controlled. From the perspective of environmental protection, the construction of this project is feasible.

However, owners questioned the authenticity of some of the data in the EIS. Residents of the district told the media: "We have asked experts to look at it, and there may be problems in many of the data, such as VOCs (volatile organic compounds) data sources, accounting methods, real emissions and so on."

A number of owners said that the GAC Honda Whampoa plant was put into production in 2004, existed before the community, and had a protective distance of more than 500m from the community, which they could bear, but the new expansion project with an annual production capacity of 100000 vehicles was even closer to the residential area, which they could not bear. According to the owner, R & F Metro District began to sell properties in November 2019 and residents moved in one after another, while the GAC-Honda new energy vehicle plant expansion project did not carry out the environmental assessment examination and approval of the project until the end of 2020 and approved in June 2021.

Data show that Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd., Honda Technology Research Industry Co., Ltd., and Honda Technology Research Industry (China) Investment Co., Ltd. jointly invested and operated enterprises according to the 50:40:10 share ratio. The term of the joint venture is 30 years. At present, Guangzhou Auto Honda has Huangpu plant, Zengcheng factory and the third factory and engine factory in Guangzhou.

As a domestic first-tier joint venture brand, GAC Honda is very outstanding in the traditional oil truck market. Data show that Guangzhou Auto Honda sold 770000 vehicles in 2021, down 4.5 per cent from a year earlier. Guangzhou Auto Honda sold 186000 vehicles in the first quarter of 2022, up 3.2 per cent from a year earlier. According to the official website of Guangzhou Automobile Honda, the products currently on sale include car Accord, style, Feido, Ling Pai, SUV Crown Road, colorful Zhi, Haoying, MPV Odyssey and other models. However, with the development and growth of the new energy vehicle market, more and more traditional car companies are turning to new energy, but GAC Honda obviously lags behind in this respect. At present, the new energy vehicles sold by Guangzhou Auto Honda are mainly fuel-derived vehicles, including Odyssey hybrid, Accord hybrid, Ling hybrid, Haoying hybrid, and the performance in the new energy vehicle market is not optimistic.

On March 29th, Guangzhou Auto Honda officially launched its new electric brand e:NP, which will be named "Ji Pang" in Chinese, and the first model, e:NP1, will be launched soon. Guangzhou Auto Honda said that by 2025, it will continue to launch a new series of brand-new electric models at a pace of one a year.

In fact, the controversial "Guangzhou Auto Honda New Energy vehicle capacity expansion Project (with an annual production capacity of 120000 vehicles)" is an important step in GAC Honda's strategy to enter China's new energy vehicle market. The project plans to increase the production line of 120000 new energy vehicles per year, and the whole plant will produce 170000 vehicles per year after the completion of the expansion. For GAC Honda, if the "Guangzhou Auto Honda new energy vehicle (annual production capacity of 120000 vehicles) construction project" cannot be normally completed and put into production because of environmental disputes with surrounding residents, it will undoubtedly have a big impact on its entry into the new energy vehicle market.

In fact, with the time of Changsha BYD's "sewage gate" attracting public attention, the topic of "whether the factory should be built next to the residential area" has once again aroused debate. On the one hand, there is GDP and economic development, and on the other, environmental protection requirements and residents' exclusion. How to strike a good balance and deal with the aftermath between the two is also an issue worthy of attention.

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