China's auto industry growing by leaps and bounds

"China does not want to be an auto colony and depend on the West's obsolete tooling; China wants to build its own auto industry," reveals Tao, a plant manager.

To that end the central government intends to implement a policy that 50 per cent of all vehicles must be domestically made by 2010, including the technology that goes into the vehicles.

China's auto industry started in 1953, when the First Automobile Works (FAW) was set up. In 1957 the first truck was made independently by China. In 1964 the first self-designed, developed and mass-produced automobile came from the Beijing Automobile Factory. By 1978, the Second Automobile Works and a group of components factories were built. China’s auto industry grew slowly but steadily until the early 1990s, mainly producing commercial vehicles.

Since joining the World Trade Organization, technology introduction and high-tech integration in China's auto industry recorded remarkable progress. The proportion of sedans increased rapidly and improved greatly; Automobile manufacturing has become the pillar industry for China's economy.

Remarkable mileposts occurred in growth -- yearly production surpassed 1 million units in 1992 and 2 million in 2000; in 2008 production will top 10 million vehicles, half sedans, half commercial.

Three main auto makers dominate China, the First Automotive Works, Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Shanghai Automotive, and numerous joint ventures with 'foreign' car-makers add variety.

Chinese automobiles have been on display at auto shows around the world; the companies Geely, Chery and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC), having bought the Rover assets, come to mind. China insists on lightweight, fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles that would rival any vehicle in existence, or on the drawing board, around the world.

The first true 'Hypercars,' perhaps?

China has "identified" the need for a plastic-bodied people's car, and their investors approached a number of composites firms in the West, settling on Automotive Design & Composites (ADC). "We learned that the objective was to leap past existing automotive technology, because the Chinese are tired of having old tooling and vehicle designs dumped on them by other automakers. They want completely new technology to make a jump to modern day," said ADC's Michael Van Steenburg.

Now, equipped with state of the art composite technology, Chinese investors intend to change the way automobiles are built.

The planned new car, 'Paradigm,' is an 850 kg mid-size, four-door hybrid-electric vehicle with a composite chassis and composite body. The chassis has evolved from a heavier and more time-consuming fiberglass chassis to the 'pultruded' version that is now over four times as strong, half the cost at just $600 and down to 38kg.

(Pultrusion: A process for producing continuous fibers for advanced composites which involves pulling reinforcements through tanks of resins, a pre-former, and then a die, where the product is formed into its final shape.)