Six Chinese cities dominate e-car sales
BEIJING: After trying for two years to get a licence for a petrol-powered car in Beijing’s bimonthly lottery, Gary Zhong gave up and bought the Qin EV300 electric vehicle from Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co.
“There was no other way,” said Zhong, 31. “I would have waited forever to get a gasoline-car licence, but instead I now find my EV actually works quite well for commuting.”
Zhong exemplifies the early success China is having with its push toward electric vehicles instead of fuel guzzlers. While car buyers in China -- and everywhere else -- still overwhelmingly prefer internal-combustion engines, the country’s carrot-and-stick policies are helping create new opportunities for domestic makers such as BYD and BAIC Motor Corp. and global challengers such as BMW AG and Tesla Inc.
The six Chinese cities that implemented gasoline-car restrictions accounted for 40 per cent of the nation’s electric-car sales of 579,000 last year -- and 21 per cent of the world’s EV sales, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Sales in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou are increasing by two to four times the national average, and purchases by individuals versus governments and car-sharing services are at a higher level than elsewhere.
The list price of an electric car -- the Qin EV3000 is about RM230,000 -- often tops that of fuel guzzlers in China, yet buying an EV often makes sense when considering the difficulties in obtaining an internal-combustion engine vehicle.
“City restrictions have effectively pushed EV sales in China,” said Nannan Kou, a senior associate at BNEF in Beijing who co-wrote the report. “Automakers in China definitely need to prioritise the cities with restrictions in terms of advertisement, sales efforts and government relationships.”
Getting a licence plate for a petrol car can take years through a lottery -- held every other month in Beijing starting in February-- or cost more than US$14,000
There was no other way. I would have waited forever to get a gasoline car licence, but instead I now find my EV actually works quite well for commuting.
(RM56,000) in a monthly auction in Shanghai. An EV licence is free and often can be obtained a lot faster.
Sales of electric cars still have a ways to go before surpassing those of petrol vehicles -- EVs accounted for about two per cent of China’s passenger car sales last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. By comparison, the global market share is less than one per cent, BNEF said.
More Chinese cities are set to add restrictions on fossil-fuel vehicles as the country fights air pollution and highway congestion.
Hainan island said this month it would limit petrol-car registrations, and others likely to follow include Nanjing, Foshan, Chengdu and Xi’an, BNEF said.
China is working on a timetable to end the production and sales of internal-combustion vehicles, and it wants electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles to account for 20 per cent of annual new-vehicle sales by 2025.
Wu Jun, a 28-year-old Beijinger, bought a BAIC EV 200 as the third car for her family after realising her chances for scoring another petrol-car licence were small.
Her parents opposed the idea at first, but now everybody in the family wants to drive the car nicknamed the Xiaobai, she said.
“I never regretted the choice,” Wu said. “It is so convenient to use and so economical. I wouldn’t buy any more gasoline cars.” — Bloomberg