Ford, for example, says that by 2018 it will launch in China a plug-in hybrid sedan called the Mondeo Energi, a version of the low-volume Ford Fusion Energi offered in the United States. It also plans to bring an all-electric sport-utility vehicle to China over the next five years.
China's drive for electric vehicles, driven in part to combat often suffocating urban smog, has put pressure on Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) to re-think its earlier scepticism about battery-electric technology. Toyota has said it will locally build plug-in hybrids and sell them in China, starting in 2018, although it has not said when all-electric car models would hit Chinese showrooms.
While green energy car sales have risen dramatically on the back of government policies, making China the world's leading market in this segment, electric cars have otherwise generated little consumer interest. They make up less than 2 percent of China's overall auto market of 28 million vehicles sold last year.
"We're not holding back anything. The requirements whether they get changed or adjusted or whatever, the bottom line is clear that electrification is going to play a bigger and bigger role ... in China and other markets as well," Ford Motor Co (F.N) CEO Mark Fields told reporters at a pre-show event this month.
To be sure, even as automakers renew commitments to produce more NEVs, it's not clear how aggressively they would push those cars in the marketplace.
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SHANGHAI, April 18 (Reuters) - China's auto industry is charging ahead with aggressive plans to electrify cars even as policymakers scale back subsidies aimed at building sales from relatively low levels and consider tapping the brakes on sales quotas for plug-in cars.
(Repeats article first published late Tuesday. No changes to text.)
By Jake Spring and Norihiko Shirouzu
The German manufacturer also hopes to form a joint venture just for NEVs with Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC) (600418.SS) , and any models from that partnership would be on top of those plans, a spokesman told Reuters. VW said in January the first VW-JAC car could be produced next year.
That is why even as automakers fight electric vehicle mandates in the United States, they are scrambling to develop more plug-in electric hybrids and electric battery cars for China.
Industry executives expect Beijing to ask automakers operating in China ultimately to generate green car credits equivalent to 12 percent of annual sales volume with NEVs by around 2020, with each green vehicle getting a different number of credits depending on the level of electrification and driving range.
Industry executives say long term, they expect China will insist on more electric vehicles, and to be ready, they must invest in developing those vehicles now.
Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) plans to have 13 additional NEVs by 2020 based on its current generation of technology, following on plug-in hybrid versions of the Phideon sedan, due to be unveiled later on Tuesday, and the Audi A6L sedan. The VW brand aims to further launch 10 electric vehicles between 2020 and 2025.
