In China, Power in Nascent Electric Car Industry - NYT

[sk8norcal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/business/global/chinas-push-for-electric-cars-flows-through-grid-operators.html

GUANGZHOU, China — Three years ago, as part of its green-energy policy, the Chinese government set an ambitious goal: by the end of 2011, the nation would be able to produce at least 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses a year.
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Nytcredit: Forbes Conrad for The New York Times

Watching a battery replacement.

With only about a week to go, it is clear China will fall far short of that target. Despite dozens of electric-vehicle demonstration projects around the country, analysts put China’s actual annual production capacity at only several thousand hybrid and all-electric cars and buses.

“It’s pretty trivial at this stage — they hardly sell any,” said Lin Huaibin, the manager of China vehicle sales forecasts at IHS Automotive, a global consulting firm.

Obstacles include continued technological hurdles, disputes over technology transfers by multinational automakers, and a broad wariness by the Chinese public regarding alternative-technology cars.

But it would be shortsighted to count out China’s electric car efforts just yet. Only a few months ago Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called for Beijing to create a new “road map” for energy-saving vehicles.

Unlike in other nations, where automakers are leading the push for electric vehicles, in China the effort is being led largely by one of the country’s most powerful industries — the state-run electric companies that operate the national power grid. With China expected to surpass the United States in the number of all vehicles on the road by as early as 2020, the government-run utilities see it as their job to provide an alternative to imported oil as a way to power several hundred million cars, trucks and buses.

This month in this sprawling southern industrial city, for example, the giant China Southern Power Grid company opened a sales and service center for electric cars.

The new three-story building, resembling a giant lizard egg of lime-green glass, is a showcase for technology supplied by Better Place, a start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif. Under the Better Place business model, customers do not recharge their electric cars but instead periodically stop at an electric filling station to swap their nearly depleted batteries for freshly charged ones.

more...

 

[sk8norcal]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/who-killed-chinas-electric-car/247990/

The Atlantic Home
Tuesday, December 27, 2011


Who Killed China's Electric Car?
By Damien Ma

Nov 7 2011, 12:11 PM ET 5

Three years ago, China was set for a green auto revolution. But the country's electricity-powered car industry is in stasis.



When Warren Buffett in 2008 bought 10% of Chinese car and battery maker BYD (acronym stands for Build Your Dreams), many thought it was the dawning of the Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) age. That "golden era" may yet arrive. Eventually. But in the interim, that dream has mutated into something of a nightmare ensnared in interest group politics and lack of clear strategies.

 

[sk8norcal]

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1053395_2012-byd-e6-electric-crossover-to-cost-35000-200-mile-range

byd e6
200 miles range..

 

[TylerDurden]

From the Times article:

• The most promising trade strategy for China to avoid legal pitfalls might be for the government first to subsidize the development of a network of charging stations for electric buses and other municipal vehicles, the Chinese official said. Mass transit subsidies are hard to challenge at the W.T.O. because they involve an almost purely domestic government service.
  
  The bus recharging stations, and the lessons learned in building them, might then be used in a more extensive network of electric car recharging stations. Subsidizing the charging stations could help make electric cars more affordable, and in turn help Chinese automakers achieve economies of scale in their home market that would help them build up an export business.
  
  Already BYD is expanding its annual capacity to manufacture all-electric buses — 1,000 this year, up from 500 last year and with a target of 5,000 next year.
  
  Mr. Agassi of Better Place predicted China would become a large-scale maker of electric cars and then start exporting them. “This is the fork-in-the-road moment” for China, Mr. Agassi said. “You get to a trade deficit on oil imports, or you get to a trade surplus with a lot of car exports.”

Perhaps the U.S. should beat them to the punch?

 

[raggedy]

I was "lucky" enough to fluke a ride in a fully electric BYD taxi in Shenzhen, when I was on my way to visit of all places...BYD to research some fibre-optic cameras.

When I got in the cab the digital dash was impressively neonish with a big digital speedo and kms to empty expressed.

Upon leaving the Sheraton Shenzhen for the 75km trip to BYD Factory 7, the kms to empty was 320!!!! It must have been freshly charged.

The car was quiet except for the road noise and some agricultural suspension noise, however no engine whine or groaning....acceleration was excellent from standstill (as expected) and top speeds of 110 kph were indicated. The trip out took exactly 1 hour, so an average speed of 75kph (not bad in Shenzhen traffic and toll booths)

Paid the driver to wait for 4 hours (200 RMB or ~$32) as there were no taxis at the factory to get back into Shenzhen. Retunr trip was uneventful and at the end of a 150km round trip indicated kms to empty was 110km...so the math and calcs were catching up to capacity and averages etc.

All in all I felt the whole trip was pretty impressive technically and apparently there are about 1000 of these taxis in Shenzhen (it was March 2011) at that time.

This experience has stimulated my interest in this "new" (even though the first "car" was electric) industry