A view of the EV market from China Car Times: It seems that Tesla's entry into the Chinese market has kick started an 'Electric Spring' in the Chinese market with electric cars being talked about quite a bit, even if Tesla fail to sell in major number (and there is no reason they wont) they will have kicked started an unstoppable revolution which should hopefully turn more people into EV's and the generous subsidies that are bringing them down to realistic pricing levels.
The whirr of electric vehicles has now become a regular sound on Chinese roads - not from from passenger cars but from fleets of electric buses. Hundreds of them plow the roads in the area around my neighbourhood daily going from the mountains in the East to the CBD areas in the West area, they carry the same number of people as regular diesel buses but they are not spewing out diesel fumes onto the bus stations as they pull away, just a gentle whirr. Then at the end of the day, or at lunch time they return to their stations to have the batteries swapped out by driving into a warehouse which is much like an automated car wash and spat out with a full charge at the other end.
This level of investment could have only come from a heavy government hand that is determined to improve the air quality for its citizens after years of rapid growth and lax enforcement of green rules. An electric city bus is well over 1 million RMB (162,000USD), a diesel running one is circa 250,000RMB (40,000USD) with infrastructure and running costs not included, obviously the cost of diesel is much cheaper but the step towards putting the infrastructure in place is to applauded.
The past two weeks in the Chinese automotive industry has been incredibly busy, yet also incredibly quiet.
Firstly, there have been a few major mergers and acquisitions such as Wanxiang buying the bankrupt automaker Fisker after a lengthy US court process which eventually saw the company sold to Wanxiang for just under 150 million USD.
In another stealth move that has largely gone under the radar, Geely recently purchased the American electric company Emerald Electric with the promise of 200 billion USD of investment to further the electric car company’s future. Geely may be considered a minnow in the EV arena but they are quickly building up a technology portfolio which is rapidly expanding their capability – let’s not forget they have signed a joint venture with local car marker, Kandi, to assist Geely in developing electric car tech. The addition of Emerald also gives Geely another foothold in a major key market, with Geely having a joint R&D facility in Sweden with Volvo, a taxi making company in the UK and a transmission company in Australia. Geely maybe a small regional player in the auto industry, but it is quickly moving its chess pieces on its path to becoming a global giant.
More at chinacartimes.com
