Shanghai Support to Boost SAIC’s EV Hopes 政府支持有助上汽新能源车战略

By newsdoug on May 30, 2011

SAIC and Shanghai: a potent pair China’s top automaker SAIC (Shanghai: 600104) is talking up its alternate energy vehicle strategy and, in a surprise to no one, is saying it has big plans to make electric, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. (English article) I won’t go into too much detail here, but the highlights include plans to launch mass produced electric cars and a hybrid plug-in next year, and a mass produced fuel cell vehicle in 2015, all relying heavily on government subsidies to boost sales. I thought that people had given up on fuel-cell vehicles, but it looks like SAIC still thinks it can succeed in this area where no other major car maker has done so. But what caught my eye more than this ambitious plan is that SAIC says Shanghai is going to fully support its campaign, with plans to build out major charging infrastructure in the city. This kind of tie-up is intriguing, because local government support could greatly improve chances of success for these alternate energy vehicles. The only other car maker I know of that has similar local support is BYD (HKEx: 1211), whose hometown government in the boomtown of Shenzhen is already helping to build out infrastructure to support its electric car roadmap. This kind of government-automaker tie-up in a major market like Shenzhen or Shanghai is intriguing because governments can supply not only infrastructure but are also major vehicle buyers and are likely to lend support in this area as well. But all that said, these companies still have to prove they can build an effective, reliable product to really succeed in this space.

Bottom line: Support from their local governments will boost SAIC’s and BYD’s chances of success in their green car initiatives if they can build reliable products.

上海汽车<600104.SS>正在大谈其新能源车战略，而且毫不意外地表示计划大规模开发电动、混合动力和燃料电池车。我不想详述，但计划重点包括明年开始量产电动车和一款插电式混合动力车，2015年量产一款燃料电池车，其销售都将在很大程度上依赖政府补贴。我原以为人们已经放弃燃料电池车了，但看样子上汽依然觉得它可以在这个没有任何其他大型厂商有所作为的领域取得成功。更让我惊讶的是，上汽宣称，上海市政府将全力支持这个计划，打算在全城兴建配套充电设施。这种合作还是耐人寻味的，因为当地政府的支持可以大大提升此类新能源汽车的成功机率。我仅知的另一家获得类似支持的汽车制造商是比亚迪<1211.HK>，其本土城市深圳已在帮助修建配套基础设施，来支持比亚迪的电动车计划。这种大城市当局与汽车制造商的组合之所以耐人寻味，是因为政府不仅可以提供基础设施，而且还可能成为新能源车的大买家。但即便如此，这些公司仍需要证明自己可以生产出有效可靠的产品，才能在该领域获得真正的成功。

一句话：如果上汽和比亚迪能生产出可靠的产品，那麽当地政府的支持将大大提升它们在清洁能源汽车领域的成功机率。