China’s electric car seeking some global buzz
ON A windswept lot near Beijing’s main airport, Lu Qun talks up the electric sports car he hopes will transform him into China’s Elon Musk.
“This is a real performance car,” the entrepreneur boasted of his sleek, grey-and-black Qiantu K50. “It’s fun. You can feel the quality. You’ll love driving this car.”
For Lu, 48, the roadster is his best chance to make it big. After a lifetime of obscurity creating vehicles for other companies, the bespectacled engineer is betting that the rise of electric cars will propel his company – and his country – into the automotive spotlight.
“Traditional auto manufacturers are constrained by their old models,” he said. “We can see things with fresh eyes.”
Across China, government officials, corporate executives, private investors and newcomers like Lu are in a headlong rush to develop a domestic electric car industry. The country’s goal, like Lu’s, is to capitalise on the transition to electric to turbocharge the country’s lagging automobile sector to become a major competitor to the United States, Japan and Germany.
That has been a goal of China’s industrial planners for decades, as the government has lavished resources on building homegrown automakers and discriminated against foreign players.
But so far, that effort has failed.
Local manufacturers have lacked the brands, technology and managerial heft to outmanoeuvre their established rivals, either at home or abroad. Chinese consumers have preferred more reliable Buicks, Volkswagens and Toyotas to the often substandard offerings from domestic manufacturers, while little-known Chinese models have struggled to gain traction overseas.
Electric vehicles could offer a second chance – one China’s policymakers do not intend to miss.
They targeted electric cars for special support in an industrial policy called “Made in China 2025”, which aims to foster upgraded, technologically advanced manufacturing. By 2020, Beijing expects its automakers to be able to churn out 2 million electric and hybrid vehicles annually – six times the number produced in 2015.
This time, China’s carmakers may be better positioned. Since electric vehicles are a relatively new business for all players, Chinese manufacturers and international rivals are largely starting from the same point.
“There is a smaller gap between where China is today and the rest of the world” in electric cars, said Bill Russo, managing director at Gao Feng Advisory, a Shanghai consultancy, and a former Chrysler executive. “There is room for newer startup companies to dream big in China.” Lu is one of those dreamers. He decided to start manufacturing his own vehicles due to the shift to electric. Since producing electric cars requires new parts and technologies, he believed a small entrant could better compete with these new vehicles.
“Electric vehicles won’t just replace cars with conventional engines, but they will bring a huge change to the entire car industry,” Lu said.
“We wanted to be part of this revolution.”
The result is the K50. The two-seater has a light, carbon fibre exterior and a console stuffed with touch screens. Rows of batteries propel the roadster to a top speed of about 193 kilometres per hour and carry it as far as 320 kilometres on a single charge.
No longer content to watch others produce his designs, Lu is constructing a $300 million factory in Suzhou to manufacture 50,000 cars a year. In all, he expects to invest as much as $1.4 billion into his venture over five years.