China’s New Energy Vehicle Realizes “Counterattack”

    A few days ago, the world-renown management consultancy Roland Berger released the Report on Global Electric Vehicle Development Index in Q2 of 2017. In this report, China ranked top in the electric vehicle development index for the first time. China’s new energy vehicle is counterattacking. At the China (Guangzhou) International New-energy, Energy-saving and Intelligent Automobile Exhibition 2017 held in Guangzhou, experts and specialists forecast the future development trend of new energy vehicle.

    Steep Rise of Production & Sales Data

    According to the latest data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturer (CAAM), both production and sales of new energy vehicles realized good results in the first half of year. Production and sales of new energy vehicles respectively reached 65,000 and 59,000 in June, ayear-on-year growth of 43.4% and 33.0%, respectively. The accumulated production and sales were up to 212,000 and 195,000 in the first half, indicating year-on-year increase of 19.7% and 14.4%, respectively. So far, China has been one of the most important global markets of new energy vehicle.

    Experts believed that China’s new energy electric vehicle had three development strengths:

    --Rapid technical progress. Five years ago, the range of China’s electric vehicle was only 100 km. Currently, the battery cost is reduced by nearly a half, while the performance is improved by 30%. Thus, the range has been increased to 300 km.

    --Internationally leading market scale. Five years ago, the output of new energy vehicles in China was only 10,000 and now reaches over 500,000. He Peng, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of Technology Department of CAAM, indicated that China had been the largest market of new energy vehicle in the world, and ranked first in annual production & sales, inventory and quantity of charging pile of new energy vehicle in 2016.

    --Advancement in “network connection”. Yan Maosheng, General Manager of Transportation Solutions Department of China Mobile, addressed that the state regulated the mandatory networking of new energy vehicles. In the future, vehicles would be smart, light and shared and linked to network. Development of “network connection” will facilitate China to take a preemptive opportunity in competition in future global vehicle industry.

    Future Development Depending on the Market Scale

    According to Zhang Xizhong, Sales Manager of GAG New Energy, new energy vehicles are mainly purchased by individuals and leasing companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Nanjing, etc.

    “Obvious regional imbalance still exists in development of electric vehicle in China. However, it indicates huge market potential.” An expert said.

    Yan Maosheng said, the sales of the whole automobile industry in China were around 28 million last year, including 507,000 new energy vehicles. Its production & sales has realized leaping development, but it only took a small market share of about 1.8%. It means that China’s new energy vehicle has a promising market and favorable development opportunities which need to be achieved through realization of technical breakthrough and improvement of overall performance of vehicles.