Gasgoo.com (Shanghai September 18) - Thanks in part to favorable government policies, the new energy vehicle industry is tipped for rapid growth in the near future. New energy sales this year are expected to be somewhere between 70,000 units to 80,000 units.
However, concerns with sufficient charging infrastructure have forced many to worry about the immediate future of pure electric vehicles. As experts at the first Electric Vehicle Industrial Development Summit pointed out, plug-in hybrid vehicle products, which rely less on charging infrastructure, are much more attractive to ordinary buyers. They offer both the increased mileage of new energy vehicles combined with the convenience of traditional fuel-powered automobiles. Experts at both the summit and in general are optimistic in the sales potential of plug-in hybrid vehicles, and maintain that these vehicles will play a pivotal role for the Chinese market to achieve its sales target of 500,000 sales.
"Although the country is working very hard to construct charging infrastructure, there are still several problems remaining on the implementation level," Chen Quanshi, director of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China's EV division and director of the Automotive Research Institute at Tsinghua University, pointed out. While more and more charging infrastructure is being built in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, it is very hard to find such infrastructure in residential areas. Apartment complexes are also wary of installing such infrastructure within the complex due to safety concerns. As such, most vehicle owners are required to obtain a fixed parking space and install the suitable infrastructure there, which is a difficult proposition since such spaces are already quite limited in major cities.
Recent data from Beijing helps explain these issues more clearly. Over the first half of this year, a total of 108 people applied to install charging posts. However, only eight people have succeeded in getting such equipment installed. Due to the problems with installation, many people have given up on purchasing an EV.
"Plug-in hybrids provide a very feasible way to solve this problem", General Manager of LMC Automotive Consulting Zeng Zhileng stated. Compared with pure electrics, plug-in hybrids aren't nearly as reliant on charging equipment, as such they provide the perfect transitional tool to help get new energy vehicles into the mainstream.
One example of the advantage of plug-in hybrid vehicles is the SAIC Roewe 550 PLUG-IN. In pure electric mode, the 550 PLUG-IN can be driven for 58 km, enough to satisfy most daily commutes. However, when charging is not an option, the 550 PLUG-IN can be switched to hybrid mode, where it offers over 500 km of driving distance. Even in this mode it offers considerable fuel savings, consuming 70 percent less fuel than a traditional fuel-powered vehicle. Due to their great fuel economy, any plug-in hybrid owners actually use their vehicles exactly like normal cars.
In addition to superior fuel economy, owners of plug-in hybrids still enjoy the same subsidy benefits that other new energy vehicles do, such a regional subsidies, free license plate registrations and being exempt from paying the vehicle purchase tax.
Vehicles like the 550 PLUG-IN and BYD Qin have proved immensely popular among normal buyers. According to sales statistics, nearly 90 percent of the 550 PLUG-INs sold were bought my private consumers. Over 60 percent of the BYD Qin vehicles sold over the first half of this year were bought by private buyers as well.
According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a total of 20,477 new energy vehicles were sold in the country over the first half of the year. That figure represents year-on-year growth of nearly 220 percent. 8,700 of those sales were of plug-in hybrids, up 42.5 percent from the previous year.
