The massive entry of joint venture brands has shifted the competition in the new energy vehicle market from the pure electric vehicle to the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), Yicai.com reported.
Ford has rolled out its first new energy car, which is a PHEV, for the Chinese market. Meanwhile, Buick earlier launched its pure electric vehicle, the Enspire concept SUV, as well as the PHEV Velite 6, which will be on the market first.
Even Toyota, which has been “stubbornly” betting its technology on traditional hybrid cars, will launch its Corolla and Ralink model with a plug-in hybrid system at the Beijing Auto Show.
However, judging from data from the China Passenger Car Association, the pure electric car is still the mainstream product. In 2017, total sales of new energy car in China reached 777,000, of which 14.3% comes from the sales of PHEVs.
According to the report by ASKCI Consulting, the sales of PHEVs is expected to be the new growth area to prop up the new energy car market, as it has less dependence on infrastructure.
toyota’s EV range is pathetically very low. they don’t offer longer range like the Chevy Volt because it will bump up their pricing significantly. As a result, the Prime is a very slowly accelerating car that would guzzle up gas if you demand more power. it has very weak motor and very weak engine. toyota did this because cheap pricing always trump high performance for the majority of Americans. can’t believe that Americans would prefer the cheaper, underpeforming pathetic import of a car when they have excellent high performing American cars!