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Chinese Auto Industry Cranks Up Hybrid Production

China's auto-making sector has caught the hybrid bug! One of the first

China's Buick LaCrosse will be GM's first Chinese-built hybrid vehicle. (Photo: Buick)

automakers to actually implement a hybrid system for the Chinese domestic market will be Buick. GM's strongest selling brand in China and one of the best selling luxury marques in this fast growing jurisdiction period, will offer its LaCrosse sedan in hybrid form, a car that is unrelated to the midsize Buick of the same name sold in the U.S. The hybrid system that it will feature is not the full hybrid Two-Mode system that GM has been showing off with its pickup trucks and SUVs, but rather the simpler BAS “mild hybrid” unit that is being used in the all-new Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, Saturn Aura Hybrid and the current Saturn Vue Hybrid. The gasoline portion of the equation will come from the same 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine found in all the cars with the BAS system. GM will begin building the LaCrosse Hybrid in the spring of 2008 at its joint-venture plant with SAIC, in time for the Beijing Olympics.

Meanwhile, Chinese domestic automaker BYD isn't just on its way to making hybrid vehicles, but plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles. BYD

BYD claims to have a plug-in hybrid version of its F6 sedan on the way shortly. (Photo: BYD)

showed off its full-electric F3e model last year, and recently announced that its plug-in hybrid version of the F6 sedan would enter production in the second quarter of 2008. That would effectively beat out GM, Toyota and others that have all been working on this technology for quite some time now. Interestingly, BYD's products will feature a different type of battery technology than what suppliers and developers A123 and others are working on. There aren't any polymers inside, but instead the BYD batteries will be iron based, selected for their performance and for their cost-effective nature. This different approach provides the car with a claimed 70-percent charge capacity in just ten minutes. BYD will be amongst five different Chinese automakers showing their cars at Detroit; hopefully more information about their products will be made available at that time.

Chery wants to make half of its vehicles hybrids, starting with this A5 ISG. (Photo: Chery)

Two other prominent Chinese automakers – SAIC and Chery – will also be producing their own hybrid products. SAIC's goals are to produce 10,000 hybrid vehicles per year by the end of the decade. On the contrary, Chery's goals are a lot more ambitious. By the same time, the brand wants to make half the vehicles that it sells hybrid, with mild hybrids starting in 2008 and full hybrid / electric cars by 2010. And with projected sales of one million cars ... well, you can start to see how ambitious this is. Total hybrid sales here in North America are considered to be strong, but aren't even remotely close at around 250,000 units.

Currently, Hybrids aren't a particular popular choice with the Chinese people for several reasons; regular cars are expensive and adding the electric motors, batteries and all other necessary components only serves to drive the price up higher. Furthermore, the price of gasoline isn't high enough to shift demand to more fuel efficient hybrids. However, with the upcoming gasoline tax and a huge concern over the air quality in China, this could quickly change. China is also looking to implement funding and tax breaks for hybrid vehicles, which will no doubt help.

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