Pollution a boost for electric car industry
Print Edition
THE heavy smog shrouding Beijing this week has proved to be a boon for China’s nascent electric car market, with some dealers saying inquiries are up by almost 10 percent.
Beijing issued its first pollution red alert on Monday and set out measures to combat the smog, including limiting the use of petrol-powered and hybrid cars to alternate days.
The red alert remained in place until noon yesterday.
The number of cars on the road was halved each day but all-electric vehicles were free to drive at any time. That’s what prompted a rush of inquiries from would-be buyers, dealers and automakers say.
“I’m considering as the new policy means electric cars aren’t limited from driving on heavy pollution days while other types are,” said Wang Chao, 26, sizing up electric vehicles at a BYD Co Ltd dealership.
Wang, who runs a food wholesale business, said the driving restrictions were yet another reason to think electric, noting also the attraction of government subsidies that would save him around 100,000 yuan (US$15,560) on an electric model.
Those subsidies and other government measures have helped pure-electric car sales soar nearly five-fold to 113,810 nationwide in the first 10 months of the year, putting China on track to overtake the United States as the largest market for electric cars this year.
Automakers including Tesla Motors and Beijing Automotive Group’s electric car subsidiary say they have seen a rise in the number of potential buyers asking about pure electric cars in Beijing because of the pollution — though many don’t dare leave home to do so.
“Recently, the smog is so serious that people aren’t willing to go outside, so they call us to ask,” said Li Hui, owner of several BYD dealerships, which focus on environmentally friendly cars. He said inquiries about the firm’s e6 pure-electric model were up by 8-9 percent.
BYD, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is also playing off the smog in its advertising. Posters on social media for the e6 carry a promotion offering free pollution masks for anyone visiting one of Li’s dealerships.
“Evil pollution invades, and you don’t have a monkey king?” reads another advertisement on BYD’s official microblog, showing a man in a cloud of pollution calling for help from China’s fabled Monkey King hero. “Activate the green cleaning, make PM2.5 vanish in a puff of smoke,” the ad continues, referring to particulate matter that forms the smog. It goes on to say the car’s purifying system can “say goodbye to big city pollution.”
Yang Lei, marketing manager at Beijing Electric Vehicle Co, whose backers include BAIC Motor and the city government, said staff worked with marketing agencies on Sunday, when Beijing was under an orange alert, on how to promote sales of its electric cars tied to the pollution.
Drivers opting to leave their petrol-powered cars at home were offered free chauffeur-driven rides in the company’s electric cars, Yang said.
However, automakers said that it was too early to say if the increase in inquiries would translate into actual sales.
Dong Yang, head of China’s automakers association, said he believed sales of electric vehicles could not maintain their current strong growth and predicted that the pace of growth would slow next year.
Even if drivers switch to electric vehicles, it may not alleviate the pollution threat — assuming the cars are recharged using electricity generated by coal-burning power plants.
A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University found that a shift to electric cars in China might cause more air pollution because of the nation’s emissions-intensive electricity grid.
Coal is responsible for around 75 percent of power generation in China, though the government has said it would cut power sector emissions by 60 percent by 2020.
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