Chinese auto makers and fuel companies to form electric car alliance
SASAC
Sixteen of the largest state owned Chinese auto makers are set to form an alliance that will push for the development of electric vehicles in China, and will be a major linchpin in the governments plans to push the electric car industry in the right direction and have a lesser dependency on fossil fuels.
The alliance was formally created late last week and will have a war chest of 100 billion Yuan (14.7 billion USD) to spend on the development of electric vehicles by 2012 according to Chinese media reports. The alliance itself is being headed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), the alliance is headed up by not only state owned auto firms such as FAW and Dongfeng, but also China’s three top fuel suppliers and two power grid operators. The group of companies is aiming to work with state owned car makers to further the development of electric cars, whilst also working with state owned fuel suppliers to make sure that the infrastructure for electric cars is developed at the same speed and will also work on developing unified standards across the industry.
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Just a point of clarification here. The 16 state-owned companies in the alliance aren’t all automakers as your first sentence says. Only the three automakers owned by SASAC (FAW, Dongfeng and indirectly Chang’an) are included among the 16.
What this means, of course, is that privately-owned BYD, the only Chinese automaker that has managed to sell new energy vehicles to consumers so far, has no seat at the table.
The massive SOEs included in this alliance aren’t exactly known for innovation. Accordingly, we shouldn’t expect much to come out of this initiative.
This must really hurt for BYD. This would never be possible in Europe. Here auto makers would just sue the state for this, and they would win.
Which other car companies are state-owned by the way?
Great
Glad to see the money and effort being put into this.
@Esprit de Flandre
BYD and Geely are private, the rest are all state-owned. Of course here we are talking about those big one.
Ed, are you sure the money and effort spent wisely? From past track record, these SOE are never innovative. EV to them is too much to handle, they are just taking advantage of government policy only like the good old “joint venture”.
Yes, the potential for wasted money is here…….but there is ALSO potential for some good forward development as well. Let’s look a little closer at this –
Changan is a lot further along with a electric car than you think….just recently Changan (and Geely too) announced that they would have electric versions of the Ben Ben Mini and the Panda on sale THIS YEAR (in the 4th quarter)……and I haven’t heard much about the BYD E6 lately. These cars would also be eligible for government incentives, which could potentially bring them to UNDER 100,000rmb in price – making them affordable to a WIDE range of the consumer market. Dongfeng co-ops with Nissan………which just happens to have this new car called the Leaf. Ever hear of it? All-electric, about the size of a Tiida, and pre-orders are being taken RIGHT NOW in America for a introduction early next year. FAW isn’t sitting idle either – they co-op with Toyota, and the electric version of the iQ (known as the FT-EV) will be on sale by 2012. Even if Dongfeng and FAW benefit from just SOME of the electric technology their foreign partners can provide, it will put them further along than they are right now – and with some of the alliance money available now, who knows what might develop?
I think what is REALLY important (maybe most important) is that this alliance plans to invest in INFRASTRUCTURE just as much as auto development – no matter HOW MUCH the consumer might like electric cars or might want to buy one, if they have no place to plug in and recharge they won’t buy the car. To really get sales going, EVERY major first and second tier city needs to have charging stations, along with every capital city of every province – once the consumer sees the infrastructure in place there will be much wider acknowledgment and acceptance of the technology.
The BYD e6 is in use as a taxi in Shenzhen. It should be on sale around the end of the year.
Nissan Leaf is already marketed in UK and Portugal (taking orders), and the rest of Europe within a month or two.
No,I am not sure if the money is going to be “wasted”, but I am pretty sure it’s better than doing nothing.
“these SOE are never innovative. EV to them is too much to handle, they are just taking advantage of government policy only like the good old “joint venture”.”
I wouldn’t be too certain unless/until they are proven to be insufficient. They could make actual/good progress.