A large number of Chinese car manufacturers - possibly more than the rest of the world combined - are now offering electric microcars to satisfy the government directive to have a green car in their range within two years.
Chinese pure electric microcars from China Fast Vehicle, China Peace Group, China vehicles Company, CME Suzhou, EMAX Motorcycle, Guangzhou EMotor Tech, Yangcheng Spring Trading, Zhangjiagang Alhadid Electric Vehicle, Zheijiang Ping and Jiangzhou DHBLC.
However, the largest Chinese automotive manufacturers are offering both hybrid and pure electric cars and often the pure electric cars are bigger. Such family pure electric cars can have up to 250 miles range, though sales are disappointing as yet.
For example, traction battery maker BYD Auto has entered car manufacture with both hybrid and pure electric family cars, whereas world leader in hybrid cars, Toyota of Japan, is weak in pure electric cars. This is just one example of a new competitor that could become hugely successful, even though its first EV cars are selling poorly.
Formidable advantages of EV manufacture in China
Behind all this are formidable advantages beyond cheap labour and consistently supportive government. There is Chinese mining of nearly all the lanthanum used in nickel metal hydride traction batteries and nearly all the neodymium used in vehicle traction motor magnets.
Fuel cell vehicles are a form of pure EV that still needs a battery. This, and the recent cutbacks in funding for fuel cells used in vehicles, underpin our prediction that fuel cell EVs will be unimportant for the next ten years.
It is not commonly realised that China, not just Korea and Japan, are leaders in intellectual property as well. The Japan Patent Office finds that 16,670 patents concerning electric propulsion vehicles were filed in the world from 2001 to 2006. The number nearly doubled from 9,034 in 1995 to 2000. Of these patent applications, Japanese applicants filed more applications than those in any other region, accounting for 6,869 (76%) in 1995 to 2000 and 11,553 (69%) in 2001 to 2006. China came second in patent applications during the survey period with 556, Korea filed 503 patents and other countries in the world were the laggards.
Hybrids got priority, underpinning our forecasts that hybrids - HEVs - will outsell pure electric vehicles for the next ten years. Of the applications filed by Japanese applicants in 2006, HEV-related patents exceeded 1,400, far more than the 530 EV-related patents and only 270 fuel cell FCV-related patents. Fuel cell vehicles are a form of pure EV that still needs a battery. This, and the recent cutbacks in funding for fuel cells used in vehicles, underpin our prediction that fuel cell EVs will be unimportant for the next ten years.
Benjamin Consulting Group, with staff in China, tracks the huge sales of pure electric two wheel vehicles and indeed all Light Electric Vehicles LEVs including hybrid two wheel vehicles and the thousand plus Chinese companies that make them.
For more see: Electric Vehicles 2010-2020
Also attend: Future of Electric Vehicles which uniquely covers the whole electric vehicle market - land, sea, air whether hybrid or pure EV - with emphasis on future breakthroughs.
