By Nick Carey, Victoria Waldersee and Qiaoyi Li
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese automakers and foreign rivals are launching ever more advanced long-range hybrids to meet rising demand in the world’s largest auto market.
Unlike many other major markets, China treats EVs and hybrids as one “new energy vehicle” sector where brands are competing to give consumers an array of electrified options with longer driving ranges.
At the Shanghai auto show this week, for instance, Geely unit Zeekr unveiled the 9X – a large plug-in hybrid SUV that can travel on electric power alone for 400 km (249 miles) before its gasoline engine kicks in. That range is nearly as long as many fully electric vehicles and far longer than typical plug-in hybrids in the United States, Europe and other markets.
Chinese automakers have also developed a thriving business in so-called extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), which have small petrol engines that serve only as a generator to extend the range of their large batteries.
Both EREVs and plug-in hybrids grew faster than pure EVs in the China market last year, pushing the whole electrified sector to about half of all new cars sold, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.
EREV sales jumped 79% to 1.2 million vehicles and plug-in hybrids soared by 76% to 3.4 million, while EV sales grew 23% to 6.3 million units.
Fully electric models grew faster than both varieties of hybrids in the first quarter of this year and still lead China’s new-energy sector. But the hybrid boom in China and globally has more traditional automakers adding gasoline-electric models to their lineups after previously focusing solely on expanding EV offerings.
Volkswagen plans a new vehicle platform for full EVs and EREVs as part of an effort to reverse its slowing sales in China, where all foreign automakers have struggled. VW board member Ralf Brandstaetter said drivetrain flexibility was critical to the German carmaker’s effort to “find our edge.”
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius called hybrids “definitely a trend in China” as he addressed reporters at the Shanghai show, predicting they would “coexist with battery-electric vehicles for a longer period of time.”
TRANSITIONAL TECHNOLOGY?
Some automakers – most notably Tesla – have dismissed hybrids as a transitional technology that only hinders the rapid EV transition needed to slow climate change. Many U.S. and European environmentalists have endorsed that view.
Some pure-play Chinese EV makers are also sceptical that hybrids will endure, particularly in China where government and industry have built a massive EV-charging network.
