See the good_New,Energy,Autos,See,the,Lead,of,Foreigners

　　 It has been two years since the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) formed the policy of encouraging the development of new energy autos. However, by now only foreign automakers are busy making stable and substantial progress while Chinese domestic auto-making companies remained where they are though they have “announced their plans”.
　　 Active Foreigners
　　On July 20, the campaign named“Electric Driving for 100 Days” was launched in Anting, Shanghai. The campaign is featured with the test driving of electric cars as an example for the global new energy auto. As the first cooperative brand of this campaign, Volvo provided 15 new electric cars for test drivers, who would drive these cars in the streets and avenues of Shanghai. An insider from Volvo said that this test driving campaign will provide important reference for the research and development teams in China to develop and upgrade the new electric cars for Chinese consumers.
　　Simultaneously, BMW China also published the road-test report of its MINIE electric cars in Beijing. It also shared the global road-test results of the MINIE. This road-test item provides a large amount of objective and precious data in the users’ features, hobbies, acceptance level, and the demand for charging system. Though the MINIE will not be produced massively, the road-test results will serve as the reference for final preparation of launching BMW i3 and i8.
　　Before long, General Motors have also invited the media in China to have test drives of its extensive electric car Chevy Volt.
　　Apart from the continuous actions with electric cars, foreign automakers are also deeply involved in the field of hybrid cars. Japan-based Toyota, which has matured technologies of hybrid cars, is quite active in that field. Apart from the Prius and New Camery hybrid cars, it recently introduced the brand-new Lexus ES300h into China, which was a new weight for its “Plan of Cloud Power”.
　　On top of Toyota, European and American automakers have also launched the hybrid version of Buick Regal, Volkswagen Touareg, and Audi Q3.
　　
　　 Stagnant Domestic Companies
　　In comparison with foreign brands who are actively engaged in the new energy auto market, Chinese self-owned auto brands rarely have substantial actions in carrying out the plans of developing new energy autos. Actually, there are quite a few new energy autos to be sold in the market apart from BYD’s F3DM and E6.
　　The recent Beijing Auto Fair indeed exhibited a lot of new energy autos. But it cannot be denied that Chinese selfowned brands are rather amateurs in their energy cars compared with foreign companies. They have concepts which cannot be realized with their current technologies. Many of them exhibited the new energy cars which had been displayed before. Though BYD-Daimler joint venture made the debut of its Denza electric conceptual car, a single product cannot illuminate the pale fact that Chinese automakers are weak in new energy autos.
　　In comparison, foreign automakers’strategies and measures in China’s new energy auto market show that they have strict plans and careful implementations.
　　 Hurdled by Interest Conflicts
　　Several years ago, the industrialization of new energy auto started and from then on it is frequently heard that Chinese companies would make substantial progress and surpassed foreign companies in the coming future. Then, Wang Chuanfu, who started his business from making batteries for autos, became the most known figure in China’s new energy auto market with his BYD and the support of Warren Buffet. However, BYD’s business met an immediate downturn when the bubble of industrialization of new energy autos broke in China in 2011 and no one mentioned the ambitious, if not ridicu- lous plan of “surpassing foreigners”.
　　Chinese automakers are having a tough time in the new energy auto market because of the interest conflict among them. For example, there is a diispute about using plug-in pattern or changeable batteries for electric car, which should be attributed to the interest conflict. State Grid and Southern Grid, two state-owned enterprises, advocate the pattern of exchanging batteries. However, such a pattern might force all the battery makers to follow one common standard and will result in the monopolization of the two aforementioned state-owned enterprises. The automakers prefer the plug-in pattern lest they will lose the subsidies from the government.
　　
　　Meanwhile, competition also exists among Chinese automakers, which stop them from forming a united force. In 2009, the Chinese Association of Automobiles united with Chery and other nine Chinese automakers to found the “Alliance of Top 10 Electric Car Makers”, aiming to get over the difficult barriers in the development of electric cars. When the Chinese government issued the policy of encouraging the development of new energy cars, the alliance of electric cars of central state-owned companies was formed. The “national team” made private companies like Chery and BYD feel uncomfortable and they doubt whether the said “national subsidies” can be fairly and universally given to them. Apart from the threat of the“national team”, private companies have to endure the impact from the“International Alliance of Sustainable New Energy” founded by six foreign companies or their joint ventures in China. The existence of so many alliances is not good for the industrial convergence and leads to the situation of excessive and disorderly competition.
　　 The Dispute to Be Ended
　　The Plan of Adjusting and Reviving the Auto Industry included the plan of making out the capacity of producing 500 thousand electric, plug-in hybrid and ordinary hybrid cars in China within three years. And the sales volume of new energy autos should be increased to 5% of the total volume of sold cars by then. The Plan also requires increasing the number of electric cars on the road to 1 million units by 2020. With these goals, local authorities also issued their own “12th Five-Year Plan” for new energy autos. However, the fact is cruel. As the data shows, there were only 8368 new energy autos produced in China in 2011, of which there are 5655 electric cars and 2713 hybrid cars. About 8159 new energy autos were sold, consisting of 5579 electric cars and 2580 hybrid cars, far from million the goal of hundred thousand units.
　　Undoubtedly, the policy is the biggest force to push forward the development of new energy autos in China. At the beginning of this July, the State Council published the Development Plan of Energy-saving and New Energy Auto Industry (2012-2020), which further defined the technological route of new energy autos in China, say, the electric cars are the cardinal strategic orientations for the development of new energy autos and transformation of auto industry. The present task is to primarily promote the industrialization of pure electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars and to spread the non-plug-in hybrid cars and cars with energy-saving engines.
　　What’s the most important is that the dispute about patterns must be ended for the eternally good of the development of new energy autos. The auto-making team should be purified and the government should give subsidies to those who buy new energy autos. The dispute about the charging pattern is resulted from the fact that subsidies are given to companies instead of consumers, which led to the sudden turn of State Grid and its friend into formulators of game rules. They promote the pattern of changeable batteries forcefully without putting the development situation into consideration. In addition, many enterprises hold the banner of answering to the national call but actually ask for subsidies and financial support from local governments. Without any practical technologies or supporting devices, they have no substantial contents in their plans of developing new energy autos but their slogans.
　　There are many lessons from the two-year period of developing new energy autos. Against this condition, the self-owned brands should keep a low profile and seek stable growth.

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