Six companies formed China’s first international alliance for promoting the electrification of both private and public fleet vehicles, with a supporting charging infrastructure.
The Sustainable New Energy International Alliance currently consists of three United States-based and three local businesses. I.B.M. Corporation (NYSE:IBM), representing, network information systems and smart grids, join Ohio-based Eaton Corporation (NYSE:ETN), which specializing in vehicle power systems, charging stations and batteries, and Aecom Technology Corporation (NYSE:ACM), a Fortune 500 engineering design company. Top local companies are lithium-ion battery maker CITIC Guan (SSE:
000839), electric motor provider Zhongshan Broad-ocean Motor Co. and Beiqi Foton Motor Company (SSE:600166), China’s largest commercial vehicle producer.
The group will first design electric buses that use advanced fuel and drive train components. It will study the deployment of clean energy taxis and buses and a charging infrastructure that supports them.
The collaboration follows a similar alliance formed by 16 of the country’s largest state-owned companies in August, with plans to invest up to 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) on electric vehicles by 2012.
The newer group has not announced a similar investment for now. But China has made some progress in developing its electric vehicle industry.
In 2008, the central government launched a national campaign aimed at getting 1,000 E.V.’s on the roads in at least 10 cities each year to encourage people to buy electric cars.
The campaign was followed in June 2010 with an incentive in five pilot cities – Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Changchun and Hefei.
Experts believe China’s electric and hybrid vehicle market is ripe with activity. With about 35 cars per 1,000 people in China’s 1.3 billion-person population, roughly 80 percent of car sales are made to first-time buyers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Nearly half of the more than 5 million electric vehicle charging stations expected worldwide by 2015 will happen in China, according to Pike Research.
Fu Yuwu, deputy director-general of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, told People’s Daily Online market players cannot afford to be left out in this sector.
