The B2B platform for full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: Events News

Led by Japan and China, Asian countries have the potential to emerge as leaders in an inevitable shift towards electric vehicles, experts at the Electric Vehicles Asia conference predict. However, they also warn against the West’s gross overestimation of technical progress already made in the Asia-Pacific region. cars21.com reports live.

If all Asian countries would join forces to add their human capital and technical skill set, the Eastern world could become the epicentre of an early breakthrough of electric vehicles. Together, China, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, to name just a few, would hence have all the requirements needed to revolutionise an industry currently dominated by complex and over-complicated automotive design. Electric vehicles would then, and already have done so, open the door for innovative, fast moving small market players. The conflict arising between massive population growth and economic welfare on one hand, and even faster growing pollution levels and resource scarcity on the other, can only be solved in Asia and elsewhere by investing in clean, simple, and affordable vehicles. This opinion was largely reflected in speeches and lively discussions in Hong Kong where around 80 participants from all over Asia are meeting for the “Electric Vehicles Asia” conference.

The century of EVs, or: How the world runs out of oil

Chairing the conference, Prof. C. C. Chan issued an inspiring call to all participants to follow the six dimensions of good engineering and use inspiration, imagination, innovation, integration, implementation, and investment to overturn reactionary thinking and get electric vehicles to the market. Chan, President of the World Electric Vehicle Association WEVA and the Electric Vehicle Association of Asia-Pacific EVAAP, is convinced that after having spent more than three decades to promote their use, the “21st century will be the one of electric vehicles”. Humanity would be left with no choice but to embark on this journey, given that precisely in these early months of 2010 projected global oil reserves would reach their peak to then ceaselessly decline, widening the gap between an available supply and a still rising hunger for energy. Participants agreed that a continued reliance on oil, which price from now on would only be set to rise, would not be an alternative for Asian countries faced with massive and rising amounts of GHG emissions from private transport.

Why Better Place might not succeed

However, rational calculations and merely monetary incentives would not be enough to convince Asians to embrace electric cars. More than that other benefits, including convenience, quality of life, and social status would need to be emphasised in a culture where a car is considered a status symbol more than anything else. For the same reason a business model as proposed by Project Better Place, where the driver would own the car but lease the battery, might not be successful in the Asian world where a partial ownership would be incompatible with the mentality of “own or not own”.

China: A leapfrog to technological leadership?

As opposed to Japan, China has not yet found its place in the global automotive market. The mere fact that the country has now become the world’s largest automotive market would not mean that it would also be a strong one, Chan warned, adding that technological leadership in the field of electric two-wheelers would not automatically equal a top position in electric cars. The often quoted leapfrog from ICE vehicles – a technology area where China is still lagging behind other global carmakers – to set the pace for EVs would maybe be only “60% true”, as also for EVs basic rules of automotive engineering would apply. Overall, speakers warned against too high expectations and claims that Asian battery manufacturers would already be well ahead of the crowd in producing efficient, competitive batteries.

Japan: An EV policy only for the stock market

Prof. Shigeyuki Minami, representing the Asian Electric Vehicle Society AEVS, sparked a lively debate with his conclusions that Japan would not attempt to present any effective policy framework to help the transition towards EVs. Japanese EV policy in fact would be “just a slogan for stock markets and mass communications”. Having been largely successful with ICE vehicles (Toyota, Nissan, Honda), these and corresponding business strategies would no longer work for Japanese carmakers, suggesting a loss of competitiveness if no rapid change within the industry would take place. Current business models where a car’s DNA would come from Japan to be put into a body manufactured in China, would no longer apply in a situation where the race for technological leadership has started without any one country having a particular head start over another. Minami was supported by interventions from the audience that Japanese manufacturers would “drown in their complex and complicated technologies” in the recent shift towards simple and affordable electric vehicles. As a result, Japanese OEMs would be too expensive to compete with other Asian countries.

A much more positive picture, however, was drawn by consultancy Frost & Sullivan predicting a leadership role of Japan in the Asia-Pacific region. A separate article next week will summarise main conclusions presented for Asia.

Coming next

In a second article, cars21.com will update you on most recent developments in Hong Kong and Singapore, an electric vehicle success story from India, and the question whether the charging infrastructure or just an easy access is missing.