The CRZ is undergoing testing in the sunny climes of Guangdong province and is expected to be imported into China later this year. As the Lexus CT200H is currently flying out of dealerships it seems that there is a demand for luxury hybrids but a lack of demand for slightly off looking ones such as the Prius (2010 sales were just 400 units), the CRZ will have to be priced at somewhere between the 150,000RMB to 250,000RMB if it is to take on other three door models such as the recently introduced Hyundai Veloster.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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2011 seems to have been a bright year for new energy vehicles, a term that the government applies to hybrids and pure electric vehicles. According to statistics released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) the Chinese market saw sales of 8,159 vehicles whilst production was slightly higher at 8,368 units.

China produced 5,655 EV vehicles in 2011 whilst only 2713 hybrids made it down the production line, on the sales front 5579 EV’s were sold and hybrids sold 2580 units. 61% of new energy vehicles sold were actual passenger vehicles whilst 28% were buses or coaches with a further 1% being classified as ‘other’ which usually indicates a mixture of light commercial vehicles.

CAAM’s Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary General Mr. Dong Yang is very optimistic on new revised plans from the government which will further boost the market for new energy vehicles. China Security Journal has is quoting an anonymous person who is familiar with the governments plans to boost the new energy markets as saying hybrid subsidies maybe increased to as high as 12,000RMB ($1,900USD) in 2012.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The Beijing Government also announced plans to turn Beijing City into a haven for electric car development in early 2011, however so far electric car sales have been very small in Beijing with actual figures reportedly closer to zero. A fleet of electric cabs are reportedly running in a suburb of Beijing but these cabs are limited to their local areas due to battery/recharging restrictions. BAIC are taking the local governments promise to turn Beijing into an electric playground for EV’s very seriously, the company has already developed a pure electric Saab based sedan and are very far with their plans for an electric MPV based on the BC30 MPV which overly resembles the Mercedes B-Class.

The above BC301Z has a battery capacity of 20.2kwh and uses 12.1kwh per 100km which allows the BC301Z to cruise for a cool 150km before needing recharging, which itself is a 6-7 hour issue if using a home power socket.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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In the next 5 to 10 years Beijing is going to add another 1,310 gas stations across the city to satisfy the demand for oil products each of these stations will be equipped with electric charging facilities also.

CatherineQu

The Leaf could be introduced as a locally made car in the future via the Dongfeng-Nissan joint venture partnership as the Honda Fit EV will be produced by the Guangzhou-Honda joint venture.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Nissan are also contemplating putting the Leaf in to production within China although the car will be imported in to China first to test the waters ahead of getting the go ahead to be made locally.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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From what we understand, this version is the E6B where as the version that has already been put into service in taxi fleets is referred to as E6A, the E6B is the version that will be aimed squarely at consumers. When consumers might be able to buy the E6 directly is still a mystery, despite strong government support for the development of an EV industry the lack of charging stations has clearly been a major obstacle in the industry.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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The Lacrosse has been a major hit in the Chinese market, the big moving saloon has been one of Buick’s big hits over the past 18 months and shows no signs of slowing down. Now GM have introduced the eAssist system into the Lacrosse, this may sound like something you would find in a pensioners home to alert the authorities that they have fallen, but it is actually a mild hybrid system that can save up to 28% fuel over the regular version. The eAssist Lacrosse is priced from 265,900rmb and rises to 285,900rmb for the next model up the ladder.

The Lacrosse eAssist is probably one of the best looking hybrids on the market at the moment, although it is a mild hybrid it does give some fuel savings and could be one of the first bets selling hybrids on the Chinese market.

Ash

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BYD K9

Chinese auto and battery maker BYD Co Ltd , backed by Warren Buffett, said on Thursday that it will start shipments of electric buses to Taiwan by the end of 2011 and the next step could be setting up a production plant there.

“We are selling electric buses to Taiwan, and building a plant there could be the next step but probably not that soon, not on the agenda yet,” said BYD spokesman Paul Lin.

Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported that executives of BYD had been visiting Taiwan recently, were impressed by local bus makers and that talks were ongoing with two unidentified companies, citing “market talk”.

BYD had secured orders from Taiwan and the first shipment, a small quantity, was expected by the end of the year, Lin said. “We have a lot of orders from Shenzhen, Europe and the United States; more than what we can produce now.”

BYD has shipped 250 electric buses to Shenzhen and planned to deliver to Hong Kong in November, he said.

Singapore would get BYD electric buses this year, with the United States and Europe in line for 2012, he said.

Investors were disappointed after the company kept pushing back its sales schedule for electric cars. BYD sold a total of only 480 units of its F3DM hybrid and e6 electric cars models. It has also delayed the U.S. launch of the e6 until 2012.

BYD shares have lost 21 percent of their value in the past two days after the company warned that it could post a third-quarter loss as it struggles with sales declines and the waning popularity of its top model.

The selloff had stabilised on Thursday with the stock rising 3.9 percent, outperforming a 1.6 percent gain by the Hang Seng Index .

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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It seems the problems like high prices despite subsidies, inconvenience, and unreliable safety performance are the major obstacles that block the massive application of new energy vehicles.

The number of charging facilities in Shanghai is much lower than the government put forward in 2010. There are only 45 charging poles, and most of the charging stations and charging poles are in the Jiading District, which means the all-electric vehicles should be driven in a limited area. The major customer of all-electric vehicles are currently inner city bus fleets.

Besides, although the maturity and operating conditions of hybrid vehicles are better than all-electric vehicles, the sales results are not satisfactory. The targeted consumers are still government organizations, and private consumers should place an order first if they want to buy a hybrid vehicle.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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There are still some industry standards left not set. Will they use lithium iron phosphate battery or lithium manganese battery systems? It seems the members of China Electric Vehicle Alliance don’t really share their core technologies or cooperate on technology development. The energy composition for power generation in China becomes another issue. The public starts to doubt whether electric vehicles are suitable for China since more than 80% of the country’s electricity is out of coal generated power. The launch of new nuclear power stations increases the doubts due to Japan’s nuclear power crisis.

These issues seem to cool down China’s previous irrational enthusiasm for developing electric vehicles. The Chinese government is reconsidering their targeted range of new energy vehicles, and plans to add hybrid vehicles into the range of its incentive program.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s TSI plus DSG powertrain and many other technology upgrades make conventional vehicles even more fuel-efficient than Toyota’s hybrid vehicles, proving that the conventional vehicles still have great potential in fuel efficiency.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

As Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have implemented the Chinese IV emission standard in advance during their hosting global or Asian wide events, and the technology upgrade has been underway for three years, the market has so far been quiet calm without made panic to buy or sell Chinese III standard cars before the deadline.

But some automakers and dealers still have stocks of Chinese III emission passenger vehicles. Dealers are now selling Chinese III vehicles at a lower price than the Chinese IV gas-powered passenger vehicles in a bid to get rid of their stocks in the next week. A Hafei dealer in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan province, told Chinese media that if they could not sell their Chinese III vehicles before the deadline, they will continue selling the Chinese III specification cars after July 1, they will move to register them before the cut off date.

The quality of oil products becomes another issue. To ensure the emission reduction goal, the Chinese IV fuel products should be supplied. However, the second and third-tier cities are not keeping up with government policy in this respect.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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According to the draft version, the general development goal is to establish a thorough energy-efficient and new energy vehicle industry chain within 10 years, with the number of new energy vehicles running on roads to be 5 million units by 2020.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

The automakers are waiting for the issuance of the subsidy policies, and the homegrown brands have started to take action. Zotye plans to build separate sales network for new energy vehicles in Beijing, and is choosing dealers. Several bidders including Pangda are in talks with Zotye. BYD also has plans of building an EV sales network in Beijing.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

In the past year, BYD sold more than 400 F3DM cars and no more than 100 E6 all-electric taxis in Shenzhen. Despite subsidies as high as 120,000 yuan, the homegrown all-electric cars, with starting prices at around 300,000 yuan, still have little appeal to ordinary consumers.

BYD also reveals its small electric car program aiming to reduce battery costs. The automaker is considering reducing battery costs by reducing its range. The range of a battery car could be 50km, 80km, 100km, 200km, or 300km, and it will cost differently for different ranges.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

The Li-ion battery manufacturers intending to attend the 3^rd China (Shanghai) International Battery Industry Fair doubled from a year earlier and become a major force of the fair.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

According to the plan, the number of all-electric vehicles in Beijing is expected to reach 100,000 units by 2015, and most of them will be passenger vehicles. The all-electric vehicles are the focus of the planning, but the other new energy vehicles like plug-in hybrids will also be supported. Notably, consumers of all-electric vehicles will be given a subsidy of 120,000 yuan, and favorable policies including no lottery drawing, no traffic limits, and no taxation.

The industry is thrilled at the news. The local pioneers in the new energy vehicle industry, like BYD, Zotye, and Chery, said they will see Beijing as the key market to make breakthroughs.

Some people are calm about the news. Chen Quanshi, deputy director of automobile research institute of Tsinghua University, said that it takes much time for the implementation of these policies as they have not been announced yet, and it’s all empty talks before the policy is issued officially.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The C60, along with the C30 hatchback, is likely to go into production in the next half of the year and we estimate that it could be available to civilians within the next 12 months.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Although the technology used is relatively simple, it will be a great selling point for Hafei in the next few months until its competitors catch up to it, the low cost of the technology will also mean a relatively low price point as well.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Electric Bora - part of the Kai Li brand?

The Kai Li brand is VW’s latest brand for the Chinese market, it is expected to be a pure electric brand but others say that its first model is likely to be electric but the rest of the models could be regular gasoline models but attached to a low cost brand.

The first model from Kai Li is the mysterious FV7002, a pure electric vehicle that seems to measure in at the same size as the current Bora, which indicated that the first model would be the Bora electric car that we have seen before. Today we gained a little more information on the FV7002, the car will weigh in at just under 1900kg, furthermore the FV7002 measures in at 4540×1775×1446mm with a wheelbase of 2610mm, where as the Bora measures in at 4540x1775x1467 and has a wheelbase of 2610mm, so it is highly likely that is a Bora based car. The FV7002 will carry a 42Kw electric power which draws its power from a bank of iron phosphate batteries which carry 60Ah.

As mentioned in earlier reports, the Kai Li range of vehicles will be among the first to roll out of VW’s new Foshan factory in Southern China when it comes online in the next 24 months.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Chinese automaker BYD Auto initiated a fleet-scale test of plug-in vehicles in April 2010. This testing process included 50 BYD e6 taxis in Shenzhen as well as a handful of F3DMs used by the Housing Authority of Los Angeles. Representatives from BYD Auto announced initial test results from these plug-in fleets a year after vehicle delivery. The most significant results of BYD’s announcement included 1.7 million miles of all-electric travel and $360,000 in fuel savings. BYD Auto also noted that e6 and F3DM fleet vehicles have not experienced reductions in battery range over time.

Pengcheng Electric Taxi Company in Shenzhen, China began using the BYD e6 for daily routes last April. The e6 is a five-seat crossover that can travel up to 160 miles per charge with a maximum speed of 88 miles per hour. This all-electric vehicle uses an iron-phosphate battery pack that can be recharged to full capacity in 30 minutes. BYD Auto stated last week that the Pengcheng fleet represents nearly all of the all-electric miles cited above while experiencing few maintenance issues.

The Housing Authority of Los Angeles and BYD Auto noted that the F3DM achieved 88 miles per gallon in the first few months of testing. The F3DM is a more attractive vehicle for American consumers with a 40-mile electric range and a total hybrid-electric range of 300 miles. Officials with the Housing Authority of Los Angeles reported 14,430 miles traveled during testing with 4,000 miles powered by gas for longer commutes. Results of the F3DM fleet test indicate that operational savings could be 70% compared to gas-powered vehicles even when including electrical charges.

BYD Auto is taking steps in the next six months to build on these results while educating Chinese consumers about plug-in vehicles. International University in Shenzhen will receive 250 electric taxis from BYD by the end of August 2011. These plug-in taxis should save the school up to $1,167 per vehicle in fuel costs. Municipal officials in Shenzhen and Changsha committed to acquiring eBUS-12 buses with delivery starting this January. BYD Auto has indicated that the eBUS-12 can save up to $2,833 per month in fuel costs, which should compound quickly with 300 buses delivered in Shenzhen and Changsha by December 2011.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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According to Chinese media reports the Besturn B70 and B50 plugin hybrids are among the leading hybrids in China, FAW are also working on a B50 pure electric model and also a Wei Zhi pure electric model. FAW are not yet betting the bank on their new energy products with only small scale production about to commence, FAW have  received an order for 1000 unspecified new energy vehicles from the Changchun City government, although it has been revealed that the majority of the cars being bough are the plugin hybrid B70 models.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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It also means Toyota starts to fulfill its “new vision” in Chinese market. Actually, Toyota has been the first automaker to make and sell new energy vehicles in Chinese market. It has introduced Prius, Lexus hybrids, and Camry hybrid to China. Faced with severe energy crisis, China has big plans for the development of new energy vehicles. The country plans to sell 5 million new energy vehicles by 2020, and the sales of moderate hybrids and strong hybrids will account for more than 50% of the total sales of passenger vehicles. It is clear that the automaker which takes initiative now in the green technology will have chance to dominate the Chinese auto market in the future, which has made Toyota more confident about the hybrid market.

It started road test of plug-in hybrid vehicles in Tianjin from the end of last year, and plans to test electric vehicles this year. Akio Toyoda revealed that the company would boost the local production of hybrids parts with its Changshu-based R&D center mainly, so as to facilitate the local production of hybrid vehicles.

SusanZhao

Susan is an English major from Xi Dian University in Xi’an, she majored in Technical English and worked for the English based news company Sino Cast. She later made the move to Shanghai in 2008 and made a name for herself at a translator in the automotive industry.

Zotye are a small Hangzhou based company that produced the Daihatsu Tarios car under their own name and have since bought in technology from Fiat, particularly the last generation Fiat Multiplan MPV and also the Fiat Palio hatch and sedan which they have re-branded as their own models. Zotye have since become a leader in the development of electric vehicles and produced an electric Zotye 5008 SUV and also the Lang Lang electric sedan. A fleet of 30 Lang Yue EV MPV’s went into testing in Zotye’s home city of Hangzhou with a local taxi company who were eager to reap the benefits of using electric power over gasoline power, now the fleet has been recalled to Zotye HQ pending an investigation after one the electric cars suddenly set on fire.

Zotye have been unwilling or unable to comment on the event pending an internal investigation, but it is suspected that a battery may have caused a spark which then ignited the materials around the engine bay. All cars have been taken from the streets and a three point action plan has been instigated by Zotye.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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Enter Geely: Geely produced the Emgrand EC7 mid range sedan in late 2010 with a 1.8 gasoline engine, now they are readying a mild hybrid version named the EC7 GSG that has a larger than normal alternator and battery on board which allows for stop/start situations, if you pull upto the traffic lights or a junction and depress the accelerator the engine automatically cuts out and starts again once the accelerator is pressed. This system is considered a mild hybrid but does cut out gas use when sitting idling, it seems like a perfect short term solution.

Want to know what GSG stands for? Geely Stop-Go. Brilliant.

FrankF

Frank entered the automotive industry via his father's instructions. He grew up with cars around him, especially as his father was a major auto restorer, Frank's childhood was spent passing beers, tools and coffee to his father whilst he explained the ins and outs of engines. Frank now works in the Chinese car industry at a specific manufacturer.

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That is not a groundless figure. Instead, this figure comes from detailed plans of provinces and cities. Among China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), 22 of them have announced grand plans for China’s 12^th Five Year Plan (2011-2015), 20 have particular production capacity targets. The latter’s total capacity target reaches 5,045,000 units. Besides, Tianjin and Hainan, where FAW-Toyota and FAW-Haima based in, have made clear that plans are afoot but particular targets haven’t been announced as of yet. Liaoning, where Brilliance and BMW-Brilliance based in, have made some initial plans but nothing solid as of yet.

What is new energy vehicle? That’s a good question. Because with different definition, volumes of production and sales vary markedly. In China’s catalogue of recommended new energy vehicles, only hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles appear. 7,181 units have been produced last year. Fuel cell vehicles are not in the catalogue, because there are no mature product can hit the market. As for alternative fuel vehicles, however, the technology meets few challenges, but they are not regarded as new energy vehicles in this catalogue.

5,045,000 will be about one fifth of the total sales in 2015. But remember, heavy-duty trucks and coaches can hardly use new energy technology in the foreseeable future. Moreover, small towns and villages cannot provide rich soil for new energy vehicles. This means in big cities, nearly half of new cars are new energy powered. What an amazingly brilliant future!

However, technically, nobody knows how to put new energy vehicles into market, let alone how to achieve the targets. Since the short lifetime and high cost of battery, EV owners have to pay about 100,000 RMB (€10,872) for a new battery pack every two or three years. This cost is far more than fuel consumption of conventional vehicles. As for hybrid vehicles, the technique may be too hard for Chinese makers – their products always have worse fuel consumption than conventional vehicles.

Maybe 5,045,000 is just a nice figure. This target can hardly been achieved in 2015, even though we have seemingly detailed plans.

Gong Zai Yan

Gong Zaiyan is a researcher at the Center for Automotive Industry, School of Automotive studies, at the prestigious Tongji University.Going Zai Yan focuses on the study of the green vehicle industry in the Chinese market, he also focuses on policy and regulations in the overall market.

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The Camaro’s 3.6L V6 engine is also shared with the Cadillac CTS which is also on sale in China, this engine uses direct injection technology and produces 229kW of power at 6400rpm, or 374Nm of torque at 5200rpm. The gearbox is a 6 speed automatic, but petrol heads will cry when they hear that no manual version is being offered.

The good news is that the mighty 3.6L V6 is able to take a 3000rmb government subsidy for being an energy efficient car, other cars that can take the 3000rmb subsidy are all small displacement models, so a 3.6L V6 sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps the criteria for the subsidy need to be adjusted some more.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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BYD F3DM

A few weeks ago the Los Angeles Housing Authority received a fleet of F3DM hybrid sedans from BYD USA for fleet testing, the initial results appear to be quite good with users reporting around 50 miles of continual power when using its electric drive train, a little less than the claimed 60 by BYD but still a good enough result for many. Luisito Bacierto, a Section 8 housing inspector, has been piloting an F3DM for several weeks and has already logged 305 miles at the wheel, he tells Plugincars.com what he thinks of the F3DM so far in the below article.

From Plugincars.com

Since mid-December, Bacierto has driven 305 miles. His daily route can vary from a few miles, to a round trip journey of more than 50 miles. Almost all of Bacierto’s miles have been in the nearly silent pure electric mode—but on at least a couple of occasions, the F3DM automatically switched from electricity to hybrid mode.

“If the battery is less than 25 percent [state of charge], the vehicle automatically goes from electric to H.E.V., which is the gasoline,” Bacierto said in an exclusive interview with PluginCars.com. “In that situation, it’s a different sound.” He described it as louder, more like a normal car. “It doesn’t bother me.” Bacierto added that the acceleration picks up in H.E.V. mode. “If you are going 55 miles per hour, you see 65 to 75 miles per hour [after it switches].” He said the switchover happened after 50 miles of driving on a full charge. Bacierto said the dashboard shows battery state of charge on a percentage basis—one of the metrics he is logging, in addition to miles driven, charge times, and amount of gasoline consumed.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The Chinese government at both national and local level have been eager to offer subsidies to green car buyers, Shanghai, Changchun, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Hefei all became national government appointed test cities for the introduction of new energy vehicles and generous subsidies were made available to personal buyers, other cities introduced their own subsidies in a bid to get Chinese drivers green motoring.

BYD – 350 vehicles

In 2010 BYD sold 350 vehicles, 110 of which were sold to a Shenzhen taxi company (this taxi company is actually partly owned by BYD), the first ten were put into action straight away, another 50 were added later and another 50 are due to be added to the fleet soon. BYD has two models available, the E6 and the F3DM.

According to one report it seems that the taxi company is having difficulty in several areas with the E6′s, the high cost of the car is off putting and is 3 to 4 times more expensive to purchase than a tradition taxi, the level of maintenance that the cars require, and also a lack of charging stations within Shenzhen.

BYD has sold 54 E6 taxis this year and around 290 F3DM models to taxi fleets.

Chang’an – orders of around 600 cars

Chang’an seems to be playing the ball quite well and on top of Chongqing’s 36,000 subsidy to green car buyers, Chang’an are throwing in discounts of upto 43,000rmb

Chang-an’s sales manager said ‘Chang-an’s new energy cars have already entered the civil service as government cars and appear to be performing well, we have also sold cars to taxi fleets and are seeing improved sales in this area with many cities wishing to buy our taxis. Nanchang City has already bought 60 cars, Kunming has ordered 50 more units, Chongqing has bought 20 units and many other cities are following the trend.”

From what we have learned, between January and November 2010, Chang’an delivered 197 new energy vehicles and delivered 212 vehicles, with back orders reaching upto 700 units. Chang’an is expected to put its hybrid vehicles into its B and A sales network meaning that they will be open to regular consumers and not just government and taxi fleets, furthermore the price of the Zhi Xiang hybrid sedan is expected to be low enough for many to afford with fuel savings of 5 to 8%.

Zotye – 30 vehicles

Zotye is one of the smaller players in the Chinese car industry they are also privately owned so do not enjoy the backing of state owned companies. Zotye’s pure electric SUV is selling under a different method in China – battery renting – with Zotye’s system you don’t have to worry about battery life as you can swap them out with Zotye as needed, although the system is still expensive with the cost of batteries at around 2000rmb per month ($302USD). According to Zotye the majority of the 30 buyers are very happy with their cars with the plus points being low cost and great torque but the major drawback being the slow length of charging.

Zotye has the biggest electric car production facility in China so far with the capacity to build 20,000 units. The Zotye SUV is available to personal buyers, but buyers really need to see if they have the ability to charge the car up

FAW-Toyota – 300 units

The Prius has become the symbol of hybrid cars the world over, in the US sales are through the roof whilst in China sales remain low, since its introduction into China the Prius has sold 3000 units, in 2010 it cleared less than 300 units. The second generation is still on sale in China but its unclear if the third generation will make it here.

JAC – 585 vehicles

At the 2010 Guangzhou Auto Show we saw the first Tong Yue pure electric car from JAC, it appears that the JAC have found themselves a sweet spot with this model as the cost of the car is supposedly low but with high performance when compared to other models .

According to JAC’s PR dept JAC cleared 585 pure Tong Rui cars, all bought by Hafei city government for use as taxis within the city, JAC is aiming for sales of 2000 pure electric cars in 2011.

From the above figures and statistics it seems clear that the majority of support for electric cars is coming from city governments and private taxi companies who wish to lower the cost of motoring in the age of high priced gasoline. Regular citizens seem to be avoiding high priced hybrids such as the Prius in favor of low cost pure electrics or self developed hybrids, the market for electric cars remains small in China but the numbers are surely but a starting point. In 2011 we can expect to see more self developed Chinese car companies such as Chery and Geely enter the affray with mild hybrids and pure electric vehicles.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The first electric bus from BYD has been codenamed K9 and maybe the first mass produced Chinese electric vehicle to be widely sold on American roads, further more it seems that the K9 series of buses will be produced in LA rather than being shipped their due to their size and the expense of shipping something as heavy as a bus, which would make great PR for China PLC as an investor in the American job market rather than a stealer of jobs.

BYD already has plans to make LA its US headquarters and plans to initially hire around 50-150 workers for the project which is still on going.

The K9 was officially unveiled at the recent EVS25 electric vehicle show in early November, according to BYD statistics the K9 will be able to travel for 300km on a single charge, which reduces to 250km should  the air conditioner unit be activated. On the charging front the batteries can reach 50% charge within 30 minutes, which should make the K9 a great option for a green thinking State like California.

The addition of a fairly simple machine, such as a bus, will likely give American consumers their first taste of Chinese automotive products and should hopefully leave them impressed and will further open the door for Chinese automotive imports into the USA and put BYD back on track to be the world’s largest car company by 2025 which they backed away from earlier this year due to falling sales in their home markets.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The pure electric VW Bora will be produced by First Auto Works and Volkswagen at their Changchun factory in the coming years, the technical specs seem to be quite reasonable with the car having a maximum range of 150km on a single charge, more than enough for average city life. The electric motor will be capable of roughly 160Nm of torque and will have around 88bhp of power under the hood from its Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM). Its array of 20Kwh lithium iron phosphate batteries will be able to reach a full charge within an hour, or a slow charge will see them reach 100% within 4 hours.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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Beijing’s new methods for controlling the car population seem quite drastic, but also quite realistic in their methodology, whilst Beijing’s traffic controls have past Central Government application in principle, they have yet to be officially rubber stamped. There is currently a lot of debate on whether or not to introduce a Shanghai style auctioning of car license plates which push license plates up into the tens of thousands of RMB price category, but at the same time this excludes non Shanghai residents from the buying process so its effectiveness is under examination. Another method put forward is to make residents prove they have ample parking space at their homes before buying a car, and to increase the number of parking spots across the city whilst also raising their prices to push people onto public transport. It seems that the City Government also asked its residents why they choose to drive over taking public transport, the answer was obvious, and City Hall are planning to introduce and expand new public transit lines across the city.

Due to Beijing having 4.67 million cars on its roads at the end of November, it seems that Beijing might also be planning to introduce a London style traffic congestion charge to push more people away from the automobile and into public transport.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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The first sedan that Hawtai plans to launch is the B11 model (pictured, left) and then the B35 SUV which will launch sometime in early 2011. The B11 has already entered production in Hawtai’s new factory in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, and television and magazine advertisements have already begun. By 2012 Hawtai is aiming to get a new SUV model, codenamed the C25, out into prototype. The C25 will be a luxury model and is already in the development stage. Also in 2012, Hawtai aims to have its six speed manual gearbox at the SOP stage meaning it will be close to entering the market, and by 2013 its six speed automatic gearbox will also be at SOP status, by mid 2011 we should start seeing Hawtai’s gearbox testers out on the roads.

On the engine front, the new C25 will have two engines both codenamed OED492Q and OED483 (OED being Hawtai’s engine brand name) Both models are four cylinder turbo diesel models, which will further Hawtai’s plans to become China’s clean diesel leader.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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More information from The Global Times:

The development of new energy vehicles in China has been highly anticipated, but automakers are disappointed with the sales figures of green cars, after having spent millions of dollars in this field.

Due to its poor sales volume, Changan Auto said that its hybrid vehicle Jiexun HEV has gone out of production for one year. “The company didn’t sell any”, a senior executive was quoted as saying about the Jiexun HEV, according to a report in the China Business News on Monday.

In addition, BYD said that it has only sold 54 electric vehicles E6 and 290 F3DM hybrids between January and October. And the sales volume of Toyota’s Prius in China has been below 4,000 units for the past three years.

The Chinese government has released subsidies to boost sales of green cars, but that did not help much. And research company Dratio said that 89 percent of consumers are not interested in purchasing new energy vehicles due to their high price and the lack of supporting facilities.

A sales manager of a 4S store of Dongfeng Honda said that consumers are not buying new energy vehicles because they don’t trust the new technology and they don’t want to pay extra in order to save petrol.

The senior executive at Changan also said that though the subsidies for electric vehicles are as high as 60,000 yuan ($9,024), the subsidies for hybrid cars are only 3,000 yuan – and this has led to the plummeting sales of hybrid vehicles.

One BYD employee said that the government has not offered enough support in this matter.

Ash

Ash came to China at 18 on a whim and never left. Some 10 years later he collected a degree and a family along the way and now focuses his time on watching the Chinese car industry develop. He has witnessed the market change from being minor backyard market in to the world's biggest and most important market for all car manufacturers. You can contact or connect with him via Linkedin by clicking the 'Website' link.

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