Electric cars affordable, but not enough plug-ins
China offers subsidies but buyers using gas
SHANGHAI — China’s ambitious plan to lower pollution by adopting five million electric cars is running into a problem — a lack of charging stations.
Eddy Wu, a Shanghai resident, bought a plug-in hybrid because the car was eco-friendly, subsidized by the government and exempt from licenceplate fees. Now he runs it mostly on gasoline, the electric capabilities largely wasted.
His apartment complex and office won’t let him charge the BYD Co. vehicle in their parking lots, saying it poses a fire risk. Using the nearest public charging station means driving five kilometres and paying cash. With gas prices expected to tumble with the almost 40 per cent plunge in crude-oil since June, there will be even less incentive to charge his Qin sedan.
“I was optimistic about charging facilities at first, but it’s been difficult,” said the 33-year-old securities analyst. “I have no choice but to use gas.”
While a dearth of charging stations is holding back adoption of electric vehicles worldwide, the problem is particularly acute in China because the country has pledged to slash greenhouse emissions and cut a reliance on imported oil, while keeping domestic carmakers competitive amid an industry shift away from conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.
“China needs to succeed in this,” said Klaus Paur, head of the automotive department at market-research company Ipsos. “There’s dependency on oil, with almost 25 per cent of the world’s production going to China. I believe it’s the only chance for the Chinese car manufacturers to quickly catch up with international car manufacturers.”
In the U.S. and Germany, “range anxiety” — or a driver’s fear of running out of power before reaching the nearest charging station — has been an obstacle to electric-car adoption. The lack of unified payment systems is another challenge, with different charging networks using incompatible electronic payment cards.
In China, many car owners, like Wu, don’t have their own garages or parking spaces at home where they can charge their plug-ins overnight.
Yan Xuefei, 27, also a Shanghai resident, wound up striking a deal that lets him charge his Qin at night at a factory near his apartment. Still, the factory’s parking lot is uncovered, and its managers forbid him from charging the car when it rains, saying they fear safety issues like short circuits.
“The government has given generous subsidies for us to buy the cars and publicized the merits of newenergy vehicles,” Yan said. “But so many car owners can’t easily charge their cars as they don’t have designated parking spots.”
Demand for alternative- energy vehicles in China has been slow despite government subsidies that can reduce the cost of the cars by about 60,000 yuan ($9,750 US). As of September, the nation had achieved only 12 per cent of its target for alternativeenergy vehicles to be introduced by 2015, according to government figures released last month. By 2020, the goal is to have five million of these autos on China’s roads.
The vehicles also qualify for an ex- emption from a 10 per cent purchase tax, as well as free licence plates issued in cities including Shanghai, where plates for a conventional gasoline-powered auto can cost about $12,000.
Dong Yang, secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, urged the city of Beijing to speed up construction of charging stations in a blog post on Nov. 24.
“When plug-in hybrid owners decide whether to use electricity or gasoline, the determining factor is charging facilities,” Dong wrote. In Shanghai, the city’s government plans to build 6,000 charging points by 2015, while it has a target of 13,000 alternative-energy vehicles on its roads during the same time frame.
Tesla, the U.S. electric-car maker that started selling its Model S in China in April, has begun its own efforts to make charging easier for customers. The company has deals to build 400 charging points in 120 cities using the outlets of China Unicom, the nation’s second-largest mobile phone company. When hybrid owners like Wu don’t plug in their cars, their vehicles actually wind up using more gasoline than conventional cars, according to Hubertus Troska, Daimler’s chief executive officer for the greater China region.
“You’re carrying 150 kilos of electric components with you that add to the fuel consumption,” Troska told reporters in the city of Guangzhou last month. “The effective reduction of emissions will only come if customers actually charge their plug-ins every day.”