2016年CRI Tech Breakthrough on EVs Needs Unified Efforts: Political Adviser

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After failing in Beijing's license¹ plate lottery² system for some three years, Qin Xiaofei finally made his decision in January to buy a battery-driven car to chauffeur³ his wife who has recently become pregnant.

But, he says, one of the biggest concerns he has with his new car is finding enough places to charge it up.

"Up till now, I find charging to be the most troublesome. All parking space in my community has been leased out. Without the parking space, we can't install our own charging post and have to go to other places to charge the car. And there aren't many charging stations in Beijing right now."

Qin's concern is shared by many drivers of new energy vehicles in China which have prompted governments to expand the charging network.

In Beijing, for example, municipal authorities have vowed⁴ to add another 5 thousand public charging posts throughout the city this year.

But, according to political adviser⁵ Ma Li, concerns for the lack of charging posts and battery life have stunted⁶ market growth.

He believes that drivers will only be content when pure electric cars have a range of one thousand kilometer on each charge.

"Regardless of the type of new energy vehicle, cars should serve practical functions first. One of the problems of electric cars is the range which can only reach 400 kilometers. People can only leave out their concerns when vehicles can cover 1 thousand kilometers on one charge."

Xing Lei, chief editor of China Auto⁷ Review, echoes that view, and notes that car makers⁸ are working on batteries to further commercialize EVs.

"Battery takes pretty much 50 percent of the cost of a new energy vehicle. So it's the biggest bottleneck⁹. You know, higher battery density¹⁰ gives you a better range. So now companies are working to reduce the cost of batteries, to drive down the prices of the new energy vehicles themselves, so that they could be more affordable¹¹ in the future."

Leading market players like BYD are seeking to mass produce the key component¹².

Sherry Li is the company's general manager of public relations.

"We are making basically all types of battery products that can be commercialized now. Our new factory on LiFePO4 batteries were just put into production last year, which is also the largest one of lithium battery in the world."

However, work from one single company may be still far from making a breakthrough in the field.

Ma Li is calling for a more unified¹³ approach to research at a national level.

"We have been calling for years that research on fundamental and common technologies must be led by the central government. They should establish a research institution specialized¹⁴ on batteries. When the research came out with results, the government can sell it to companies. It will also facilitate the setting up of standards for products later."

Ma believes the outlook is bright.

The Ministry¹⁵ of Industry and Information Technology, together with nine companies, are working to build a research center or common platform for batteries backed by 500 million yuan of investment.

The announcement was made after the country's State Council pledged last month to provide more supporting measures.

For CRI, this is Fei Fei.