Chinese electric car in Australia next year
Local distributor plans first "affordable" EV, but won't say which brandA cheap Chinese electric car could end up giving the established brands the shock of their lives next year.
Ateco Automotive, the Australian distributors of Chinese car brands Great Wall Motors and Chery, is working on importing a fully-electric runabout by the end of 2011 with a target price "in the mid-$20,000s".
Such a sharp price would undercut the likely opposition by tens of thousands of dollars.
The first electric car due on sale in Australia is the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which is expected to be priced about $70,000 when it arrives in showrooms later this year.
The second electric car due on sale in Australia is the Nissan Leaf, which is expected to cost about $40,000 when it arrives in showrooms in 2012.
But the boss of Ateco Automotive, Neville Crichton (pictured), told a group of Australian journalists at the Beijing motor show overnight: "We want an electric car, we are working on importing an electric car, but it has to be way under $45,000 for it to work.
"People won't pay that sort of money to save fuel. It's got to be somewhere in the mid-$20,000s. [Hybrid] cars like the Prius are too dear. They don't make economic sense.
"If the price [of an EV] is cheap enough, we could do the volume, absolutely we could do the volume. We want to have an electric car on the road by 2011."
When asked which brand Ateco was negotiating with for its electric car, Crichton said: "Not saying. It's too sensitive right now."
Although both Chery and Great Wall Motors have "studies" on electric cars, an introduction next year would be too soon for both of those brands.
The best known brand in China for electric cars is BYD, which recently signed a technology agreement with Mercedes-Benz, but Crichton would not be drawn further into the discussion.
Crichton's second-in-command at Ateco, Ric Hull, said the electric vehicle would be distributed through inner metro dealers.
"You'd appoint dealers in the cities as opposed to rural areas of course, so it would be much more targeted. It wouldn't necessarily be alongside a Chery or a Great Wall dealership."
Hull said China, with its rapid pace of development, was well placed to beat the major car makers to the EV era.
"[Petrol-electric] hybrids have served their purpose, which was to learn about the technology," he said. "Hybrids are a speed hump on the way to electric cars."
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