China's New Hybrid Cars: Almost Affordable in China
by Alex Pasternack, Beijing, China on 04.29.08
In a country where 5.2 million cars were bought last year, where nearly 10 million cars are produced each year, and where "environmental protection" is a major buzz word, you might think that the Chinese have been ramping up their cheap, domestic-made hybrid cars. Nope. The only hybrids currently available are Japanese, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic. And while they're assembled in China, importing the parts from Japan means heavy taxes, which means that these cars costs double in China than what they do in the US. That's why only 417 Priuses were sold in China last year.
Then, at the Beijing auto show last week, GM got lots of press for announcing it would sell its new hybrid in China. But the cost won't be much better than the Prius, around $40,000. For a country where the average car costs less than a quarter of that, where demand is growing for big cars, and where fuel prices are kept artificially low by the government, the future of green cars seems dim.
But enter the Chinese automakers. Yes, big cars are in but so are small and green models, and they have a few that, while still largely concepts, are affordable -- and could be invading overseas markets in the next few years.
As GM was stirring up green buzz for the June release of their Hybrid LaCrosse, domestic companies were showing off their own offerings, with prices starting around $10,000. By 2010, some 30 different hybrid models will be available in China. Good news for China, and because of economies of scale, and Chinese exports, everybody.
Chery: A3 Hybrid
The first much-touted Chinese-made hybrid will come in regular and diesel flavor, with a 1.8l engine. The A3 will reportedly carry a dealer's price from 70,000 yuan ($9,997) to 110,000 yuan.
BYD: E6
The E6 by battery-maker BYD -- recently covered here in detail by Mike -- is a 5 seater with an acceleration of 0 to 100 kph of around 10 seconds. Top speed is 160 kph (100 mph), with a lithium-ion iron phosphate battery and a range per charge of 300 km (186 miles). But get this: BYD says the battery had a life of 2,000 cycles, for a lifetime range of about 600,000 km (373,000 miles). Supposedly, a fast charge can bring the battery to 80% SOC in about 15 minutes.
The e6 is set to hit the Chinese market in 2009 or 2010, and will be priced at about RMB 200,000 (about US$28,500).
BYD: F6DM and F3DM
The "DM" or "Dual Mode" F6DM and F3DM both have a 1.0L gasoline engine combined with a 50kW motor and a 20kW power generator. Their 19.8kWh batteries alone are capable of running 100km, the company says. The FD6M initial cost? 50,000 yuan ($7,150) more expensive than the base model, so in total around 150,000 yuan (about US$21,500). Half the price of the Prius in China now.
As Mike points out, this car could beat the Chevy Volt as the world's first plug-in hybrid.
BYD: F1
Called the "Chinese MINI," -- not to be confused with the "Chinese MINI Clone" -- the FI is meant to be the cheapest Chinese-made car, to be priced between 30,000 yuan ($4,290) and 40,000 yuan when it hits the market. It features an eco-friendly 1.0 L three-cylinder 12-valve SOHC engine, with a max output of 50kW/6,000rpm and a max torque of 90nm.
Note that while this car is made by China's biggest battery manufacturer, it is not a hybrid; it's just China's smallest and cheapest car yet, containing what its company says is a lightweight, efficient engine.
On that note, it's also worth mentioning that fuel efficiency information for most of these cars has not been provided.
Haima: H1/Fu Shi Da
Needs 4-5 hours to a full charge, probably because it uses lead acid batteries. Also features regenerative breaking technology.
Geely: FCE
The Geely FCE has 1.6 92bhp engine, with a hybrid drivetrain giving out 40bhp of power.
Great Wall: Kulla
The Kulla is a 2-seater pure electric vehicle with a maximum running distance of 140km on a single charge.
Great Wall: Peri
The car that angered Fiat due to its strong resemblance to the Panda contains a 50 kW electric motor with lithium-ion batteries, a maximum operating range of 180 kilometers, a top speed of 130 km/h, and an operating cost of under 100 yuan ($1.43 USD) for every 100 kilometers. The company claims a 70 percent charge in 10 minutes. We'll see.
Great Wall: Hover Hybrid
Great Wall's hybrid SUV promises oil savings of 15% when being driven around the city. Says China Car Times: "an excellent idea seeing as most Hover owners would never take their car off road anyway."
Guangzhou Automotive Group: AHEV
The partners of Toyota and Honda in China showed off this electric car concept, one a two door coupe, the other a four door version. They are aiming for a 2010 launch of a hybrid version.
Soueast: X1 Plug-in HEV
The only sports car among the bunch is a hot, modern collage of all sorts of other cars.
One major key to achieving China's green driving dreams is better enforcement of intellectual property laws. The longer Western automakers feel uncomfortable lending their green tech to China, the longer it will be before hybrid prices come down and technology improves. As the designs of some of more than a few Chinese cars illustrate, intellectual property protection in China still has a long way to go.
The government, wary of a jump in SUV sales last year, is pushing auto efficiency from its side. It has imposed vehicle taxes, ranging from 1 to 20 percent, based on engine size, and instituted stringent standards for fuel-efficiency, with extra taxes of 5 to 15 percent on models that fail.
But incentives -- like tax breaks or research money -- for green cars are needed too.
According to Wu Zhixin, director of research and development at the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, in the WSJ,
the majority of Chinese drivers would be willing to buy a hybrid -- if the price tag were no more than 20% higher than that of a conventional car. That is a tough challenge since compact and smaller cars, which made up 67% of all car sales in China last year, are selling for as little as $4,500.
Wu Zongxin, dean of Tsinghua University's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology "says the government should start replacing its own vehicle fleets with hybrids to help auto makers gain economies of scale and bring prices down."
A rise in fuel prices, above the current $3 a gallon, would help too. But given the crazy inflation currently sweeping China, that seems unlikely for the time being.
Update: Green Leap Forward puts this latest burst of green car buzz in perspective.
via China Car Times, Jalopnik, Gasgoo
and Green Leap Forward.Also on TH: China's Cars Come in Green, Young Chinese: Cars First, Then Sustainable Consumption, Dude! Where Can I Park My Car in China?, China's Automotive Era Kicks Into High Gear, Chinese Carmaker Developing Hybrid Car , BYD E6
Is the BYD F1 hybrid? It appears to be just a small car with a 1L 50kw(67hp) engine.
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You're right--it's not a hybrid, just a very small and cheap car. Not the greatest thing, but the lightweight engine is meant to be pretty efficient. The phrae "eco-friendly" I realize was taken from a press release of some sort. I'll make that clearer. Thanks, Alex
Any cheap hybrids coming to the states anytime soon/
What's worse is that with gasoline prices hitting all-time highs here in the US, the next most obvious step is for Chinese automakers to begin exporting their small cheap hybrids to the US. This much the same way Japan caught US automakers by surprise during the first OPEC fuel shortage.
Bottom line? Fewer US-made cars sold, and our trade deficit with China grows ever larger.
If Ford, GM, and Chevy don't get off their rear ends SOON, they're going to end up being sold to the lowest bidder for scrap.
Ahem.
We bought a 2007 Chevy Malibu LS last year, made in America, and not a hybrid. The WORST mileage we have been able to get is 35 mpg. I often get 40+ mpg on a round trip to town and back of 30+ miles. Our Malibu has AC, electric windows and mirrors, automatic transmission, a CD player, AND four doors and large trunk. It was pretty inexpensive, and on a highway drive it DOES get 40 mpg easily.
GM and others DO make high mpg cars. Do not blame the car makers as if it is ALL their fault, it is the BUYERS that want the big heavy cars with poor mpg.
The high mpg cars are here today, and they are available and inexpensive. Just look.
Wait, "won't be much better than a Prius" at $40,000? The Prius starts around $20,000!
There's one good reason why there will be absolutely no hybrid market in China for the forseeable future: they subsidize gasoline to PENNIES PER GALLON. Most of the increase in demand for gasoline over the last ~5 years is countries that have massive gasoline subsidies like China, Venezuala, most of the Middle East, etc. In Venezuala/Iraq etc, because the electrical grid is in piss-poor shape, tens of thousands of people use diesel/gasoline generators for electricity--an enormously expensive, inefficent, and polluting way of producing electricity.
Truespeak, do you drive in a vacuum? According to several car sites, the best mileage that a Malibu gets is less than 30. Of course there are many factors that can affect this and you may be one of the very few accomplishing this feat. However, due to its size, weight, engine, etc., the Malibu isn't even on the EPA's list of most gas economic vehicles.
It's a fact that American car makers are NOT on the forefront of producing gas economic vehicles. They are just jumping on the bandwagon so they can keep making money. Unfortunately, the auto lobbyists are the ones keeping foreign made vehicles that are much more efficient out of this country.
It's great that the Chinese are putting out plug-in hybrids -- but when most of China's energy comes from coal, is it any less polluting for a Chinese car-driver to power their car with electricity?
I was intrigued to see this article, but I immediately thought about what Gideon said. How is a "plug in" more effective if the power comes from an inefficient source, such as an electrical plant run off of coal? The "green" properties of the vehicle seem to be very insignificant in this respect. If I happen to be incorrect in my understanding of how some of the cars presented in this article work, feel free to correct me, but it still does not remove my doubts.
Cheers
Why did GM and Ford kill their electric cars? Why is GM still lying on its site about not having killed it? Why are they supposedly unable to produce an electric car (that the public demands) while they already had them several years ago until they decided to crush them?
Why are they still in bed with the oil companies?
It seems to me that we have all the technology available to us right now to create an ultra efficient car that would be green from start to finish. I propose a plug-in car with wheels that are motors with regenerative braking power. Add future technology like solar paint and a small solar panel on ones house that is dedicated to charging the car and you'd never have to charge up at an outside station during your normal commute. Most people commute less than 60 miles a day for work. Here are some links:
Proof of concept for electric wheels:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/the_hybrid_mini.php
Solar Paint:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13424-solarpower-paint-lets-you-generate-as-you-decorate.html
Add an ultra capacitor like this and your all set!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/eestor_capacito_1.php
Let's hope someone gets it right. I'm ready.
TheAdvocate,
I don't know where you get your "facts". EPA lists the 2007 as getting 34 hwy (31 under the 2008 system), and I have heard many people that own GM's actually get better than EPA rating, especially in hwy driving, even in their larger vehicles. 35-40 mpg hwy doesn't sound all that unreasonable for a Malibu.
The Malibu IS listed among the more efficient in its class. Go to www.fueleconomy.gov and search by class for 2007 family sedans. The Malibu (automatic) is near the upper end of the list between the Hyundai Sonata-5 speed and the Accord-automatic and is the highest rated car on that list that isn't hybrid, manual transmission, and/or compact. And the Saturn Aura Hybrid (GM) is even higher on the list. If you continue down that list you see a mix of foreign and domestic vehicles with very similar numbers for vehicles of similar size, weight, engine size, and transmission.
GM, Ford and Chrysler do not make the MOST efficient vehicles sold in the US, but the most efficient vehicles don't account for much of the US market. They do make respectably efficient vehicles when compared apples-to-apples even with the likes of Toyota and Honda, particularly in the vehicle classes that are most popular with buyers.
Please keep your bigotry and misinformation to yourself.
China is leading the way to a more sustainable world. The Chinese government knows that petrol is a limited supply resource, and that they simply cannot run the entire country on oil products forever. As the rest of the world runs short of oil, so does China. They produce small, cheap, efficient cars, and are the worlds largest manufacturers of high capacity batteries and solar cells. They will soon be making and installing more wind generation than the rest of the world put together.
Thing is, it should be the technologically advanced west leading this change, not the underprivileged, underdeveloped, underpaid third world ...
John Taylor,
Don't give China too much credit for their "leadership". They can do this for the same reason that they are the world's largest manufacturers of so many products. They rip off technology from more developed countries and build knock-offs with workers who are paid near slave wages in dangerous conditions - all things that are banned in the west.
Also hate the way everyone seems to think that China is an underdeveloped country. Sub-Saharan Africa is underdeveloped. Its economy is barely growing. China has the fastest growing economy in the world. It is massively industrialised. It produces the vast majority of the worlds manufactured goods? How the hell is that underdeveloped? The only thing it shares with less developed countries is the abject poverty and slavish conditions in which many of its people work. China economy should be subject to the same scrutinies as Western countries. It is is not some quiet little backwater. Look at Beijing - it has skyscrapers. Is that underdeveloped?
Quite interesting that in just about every forum I've been on I've seen someone chime in with demonstrably false information regarding US autos in general and usually GM in particular. I am beginning to think GM has taken a page from Microsoft's playbook and is seeding forums with people paid to talk them up.
Progressive Penguin, to what "demonstrably false information" would you be referring?
The Obvio should be hitting US roads soon, i think.
treehugger
i would not call myself a treehugger, but i do love our land. some may call me a hard core conservetive (that cant spell). but on my google search you where first page last HTML,.good spot to be in.anyway i was looking for info on hybird autos and up you came i have found that the best info comes from a person that is dedacated to a couse for the love of the couse and not the money.
becouse of a well put together and informative site i feel you are one of these people. thank you very much. marc anderson
p.s. if it cant be grown it has to be mined.please dont forget to walk in and shut down a place hurts thoughs that work hard and live on said land.