Jon Vandervelde August 19th, 2010
By Jon Vandervelde
August 19th, 2010 China has announced a state-run plan to put 1.5 million electric and hybrid vehicles on the road over the next three years. State-run media reports that Beijing will invest 15 billion dollars in this effort, which will involve an already assembled coalition of 16 large, state-owned ventures including military contractors, aviation companies, power companies and automakers such as Dongfeng Auto and the China FAW Group. It's difficult to say what this means for foreign companies such as General Motors, which recently inked an agreement for a joint-ventures with Chinese automaker S.A.I.C. to develop related technologies,but probably nothing good. China's more or less openly nationalistic industrial policies are notorious for making it difficult to penetrate the country's markets, while at the same time sucking as much technical knowledge as possible from corporations making the attempt. As Zhong Shi, editor of the Chinese publication China Automotive Review recently told the Global Times, "...Though lots of foreign firms launched technology agreements, there is no precedent of successful technology exchange in China's auto industry,". [NYT]
Enlarge PhotoChina has announced a state-run plan to put 1.5 million electric and hybrid vehicles on the road over the next three years. State-run media reports that Beijing will invest 15 billion dollars in this effort, which will involve an already assembled coalition of 16 large, state-owned ventures including military contractors, aviation companies, power companies and automakers such as Dongfeng Auto and the China FAW Group.
It's difficult to say what this means for foreign companies such as General Motors, which recently inked an agreement for a joint-ventures with Chinese automaker S.A.I.C. to develop related technologies,but probably nothing good. China's more or less openly nationalistic industrial policies are notorious for making it difficult to penetrate the country's markets, while at the same time sucking as much technical knowledge as possible from corporations making the attempt.
As Zhong Shi, editor of the Chinese publication China Automotive Review recently told the Global Times, "...Though lots of foreign firms launched technology agreements, there is no precedent of successful technology exchange in China's auto industry,".
