BMW's new energy night in China's southwestern city Chengdu highlights its five-year-old sub-brand BMW i.
China's ambition to become the undisputed world leader in electric car manufacturing and use is looking a bit overcharged with hypes and hopes.
In recent months, carmakers have unveiled new strategies, the nation's high-profile subsidy fraud has abated and regulatory authorities have aggressively pursued policies that make electrification of cars a must, not a choice.
Unfortunately, the whirlwind of activity in the past left most consumers confused about what cars are worth buying. Hopefully, they will have at least some clues from now on.
When General Motors announced its hybrid-centered electrification roadmap for China last month, it looked like the US company was gate-crashing a party hosted by Toyota.
For years, the Japanese carmaker has aligned itself in a practical middle-of-the-road solution for greener cars — -----pairing the electric motor with a gas combustion back-up system. Now this strategy is being further developed and enhanced by the Americans.
Though having not talked much about hybrids in the past, General Motors has been long working hard on them and biding its time. Its recently unveiled new energy product offensive in China includes two hybrids: the Buick LaCrosse Hybrid and Chevrolet Malibu XL Hybrid. Both have circumvented the pitfall of certain patents held by Toyota.
At the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai, Larry Nitz, executive director for electrification at General Motors, discussed what he called EVness. Energy efficiency aside, it strengthens responsiveness and also smoothness. An electric car is as much about one's environmental conscience as about his fun and comfort on the road.
"Our electrification approach is about delivering an industry-leading driving experience," said Nitz.
The company's self-developed powertrain is hailed as more sophisticated than Toyota's, with the ability to coordinate more nuanced output delivery at different speeds.
The whole point is to reduce the unnecessary engagement of the engine as much as possible and rely more on the electric motor, which has a more responsive and straightforward nature.
But when it comes to commercialization, General Motors' system has to take a roundabout with its cost control. Because of the system's complicated nature and newborn status, it started localization with a top-down approach, hybridizing mid-to-upper car models instead of the likes of Toyota's easy-to-afford Corolla and Levin.
Nitz declined to comment on the localization rate of the system's parts, but pointed to modular design as the solution.
Even the Cadillac plug-in hybrid shares many critical parts in the electric drive unit with the two hybrids, and that is just a start. A battery assembly plant will be built in Shanghai to support a 26.5 billion yuan (US$4 billion) new energy offensive of deploying no less than 10 hybrid cars in China over the next five years, including one localized each year.
Of course, SAIC-General Motors' product portfolio will cover a full spectrum of electrification — from hybrids, plug-in hybrids, extended range electric cars and all-battery cars, said Wang Yongqing, president of SAIC-General Motors.
Looking at the long term and not knowing how far vehicle electrification can go in the sense of being commercially viable and not just technologically feasible, it is better to place bets on all possible outcomes. Now it is time to double down on some.
