Follow the path of the development of new energy vehicles in the United States and South Korea

Traditional automobile manufacturing power in the development of new energy vehicles are mostly went the same way - made use of a variety of policy and a large number of government subsidies to promote the development of new energy vehicles, and the problems are almost the same as: range anxiety, high cost, the lack of infrastructure, such as charging pile, which became the restriction of traditional automobile manufacturing power main factors for the development of new energy vehicles industry.

Us: electric cars counter future cars

Thanks to heavy subsidies and government incentives, electric cars, which had been driven out of the market by petrol-powered vehicles, are taking their revenge on the American market.

According to the data released by the us government, the total sales volume of the us auto market in 2017 exceeded 14 million, among which the sales volume of new energy models accounted for about 3%, and the total sales volume reached 477,000, which was 5.6% higher than the previous year. Among new energy vehicles, sales of pure electric vehicles jumped 23 per cent to 168,000 units.

A report by Bloomberg predicts that 41m electric cars will be sold by 2040, accounting for 35 per cent of new light vehicle sales.

Electric cars stage 'revenge'

From the time of its birth, the electric car, which was born about half a century earlier than the internal combustion engine car, can definitely be called the "old-timer" in the automobile circle. But this "old-timer" was powered only by dry batteries and could travel only a short distance, which seems incredible today.

In the second half of the 19th century, the development of battery technology ushered in the earliest glory of the American electric car industry. Electric cars began to be widely used in Europe and America, and were once more popular than fuel cars.

No unpleasant petrol engine, no noise, no vibration, no steam car long preheating time, driving operation more simple, the price is relatively cheap, these features make the electric car in the early 20th century, the early car market is quite popular, and with steam cars and diesel locomotive, formed the situation of the three pillars of - 1900, 38% of sales of 4200 vehicles in the United States is the electric car, 22% is the internal combustion engine car, 40% are steam engine vehicles.

However, with the development of oil exploration in Texas and the improvement of internal combustion engine technology, electric vehicles gradually lost their advantages. Internal-combustion engines dominated the car market, and electric cars began to disappear. By the 1930s and 1940s, electric cars had been largely phased out by petrol-powered vehicles.

In the decades that followed, as fossil fuels, mainly oil, dried up and air pollution incidents occurred, electric cars staged a "revenge" in the us market, and more and more Americans began to pay attention to electric cars again.

As an important market indicator, sales data not only reflect the attitude of ordinary consumers towards new energy vehicles, but also intuitively show consumers' preference for certain types of vehicles.

According to the definition of Chinese industry, hybrid electric vehicles do not belong to new energy vehicles, but interestingly, hybrid electric vehicles are the highest sales category in the us new energy market, accounting for about 67% of the total sales. Hybrids offer better value for money than all-electric models, which tend to cause range anxiety, or plug-in hybrids, which sell for more.

Hybrid power in the United States has been cultivated for many years, Toyota, ford and other Japanese and American cars have the most competitive advantage in the market. Among them, Toyota's market share is up to 55.42%. Ford was next at 19.24 per cent.

Plug-in hybrids are also popular in the U.S. Japan's Prius Prime competes in the same category as the home-market Chevrolet volt.

In the pure electric vehicle market, Tesla's main ModelS, ModelX, BoltEV and LEAF have dominated. These four models account for more than 80 percent of the total electric vehicle market, according to the statistics. Among them, electric SUV with high driving range has always been a must-win for the military, which is also the reason why ModelX remains a hot seller after the door storm and seat problems.

The Model3 electric car, which entered the U.S. market last year with a starting price of $35,000, has been called Tesla's most affordable model. The company has high hopes for the vehicle, which it hopes will help it reduce losses and invest in future cars.

However, the industry is most concerned about whether the Model3 can be quickly loaded. The car has already delayed production targets several times due to a lack of capacity. Recently, the Tesla company announced that the weekly production has reached 2000. Tesla's second-quarter production target of 5,000 Model3 electric cars a week was originally set for the end of 2017.

The "" counter attack" "relies on technology, but bottlenecks remain

The decline in the cost of power batteries and the development of charging technology are also important factors for electric cars to make a comeback in the us market.

First, falling battery costs are a prerequisite. The cost of lithium-ion batteries, which cost $350 per kilowatt-hour last year, has fallen 65% since 2010. The idea report notes that since 2008, the cost of batteries has fallen by about four times, while the energy density of batteries has increased five fold. By 2030, battery costs for electric cars will be well below $120 per kilowatt-hour, according to analysts at Bloomberg. As technology improves, battery costs will fall further.

For electric vehicles, charging is an essential part of the use process. As of January 2018, the United States has built nearly 20,000 charging points and more than 50,000 charging outlets.

And star power is another reason for the development of new energy vehicles in the United States. When the oil price cannot be the factor that triggers ordinary people to buy new energy models, the choice of public figures makes it a trend to buy and use new energy models with star effect.

In addition, the promotion of star enterprises such as Tesla also plays a key role. Tesla's market strategy is undoubtedly correct, first launched in 2008 to try water sports car Roster, launched in 2012, the mature production of high-end car ModelS, launched in 2015, ModelX, then launched in March 2016, populist Model3, namely exercise their abilities, with high-end car first build market potential energy, and don't disturb too much competition, wait to mature technical ability, Volkswagen car preempted market quickly.

Of course, Tesla is not the only one. After the 1990s, major automobile manufacturers began to invest capital and technology in the field of electric vehicles, which has become an important factor in promoting the development of electric vehicles.

However, despite some progress, the U.S. ev market still faces problems such as high cost of charging piles and long charging time. As long-term losses are difficult to popularize, and charging service fees are just a drop in the bucket for operators, losses have become the "normal" of the entire charging pile industry.

Tesla's solution is to build as many fast charging stations -- "Supercharging stations" -- as possible. The "supercharger station" is fast and convenient, with a range of 270 kilometers in half an hour of charging, which is 10 times more efficient than a home charging pile.

While the service is commendable, the cost is prohibitive for most Americans. Each "supercharger station" costs more than $100,000 to build and requires an area of 20 to 200 square meters of infrastructure.

In this case, the development of wireless charging technology has become an important factor in the popularity of electric vehicles. With the increasing r&d efforts of major manufacturers on the wireless charging technology of electric vehicles and the fierce competition in the third-party charging pile market, this technology has been successfully applied.

In recent years, automobile manufacturers all over the world have realized the trend of intelligent and new energy in the automobile industry and increased their investment in autonomous driving and new energy vehicles. Ford, for example, announced plans for an $11 billion investment in electric and hybrid vehicles at the north American auto show this year. BMW announced a total of 25 electric cars by 2025. Mercedes plans to have electric versions of all its cars by 2022.

In addition, Japanese manufacturers are rapidly improving the fuel economy of their vehicles through hybrid technology and improving the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines.

Regions with better policy support are growing fastest

For years, the U.S. government has been positive about new energy vehicles. As early as the 1980s, the us government launched a targeted new energy strategy.

In 1988, in the last year of his presidency, President Reagan signed the alternative engine fuels act (AMFA), an effort to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions by cutting taxes for car companies that run on natural gas or ethanol (alternative fuels).

In 1989, President George h.w. bush introduced an amendment to the Clean Air Act to address three major air problems that threaten the health of Americans: acid rain, urban air pollution, and toxic emissions. It was eventually passed in 1990, with tax breaks for companies selling clean-fuel models.

In 1992, congress passed the Energy Policy Act. Law for the first time for the industry application of several years of "alternative fuels" concept is given official definition: alternative fuels including bio fuels, such as ethanol), natural gas, hydrogen gas, electricity, propane, and other in the future by the doe rules of fuel (then passed the two fuels, bio diesel and P series fuel), these models are called alternative fuel vehicles (Alternative Fuel Vehicle, or AFV).

To this day, the AFV remains the official U.S. definition of an energy efficient, environmentally friendly vehicle and a key support model. In the decree, AFV became the main target of government car purchases. One hard and fast rule: starting in fiscal 1999, 75 percent of the federal government's light vehicles must be afvs.

It is driven by the government subsidy policy that the new energy vehicles in the United States have experienced rapid growth in recent years.

The U.S. government has spent tens of billions of dollars in low-interest loans and subsidies to advance its plug-in hybrid vehicle program, and even set up a special fund to support the development and production of power batteries, key components, new energy vehicles and charging facilities.

In addition to the existing tax credits, the us government, in the name of the White House for the first time in July 2016, released an electric vehicle industry development package, including providing $4.5 billion government loan guarantee, and funded $10 million per year to promote the "battery 500" project.

The Obama administration also introduced rules in 2012 that require U.S. cars to get an average of 54.5 miles per gallon (4.32 liters per 100 kilometers) by 2025, up 10 miles from current standards. The Obama administration says this will help significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save consumers money and ultimately reduce U.S. oil consumption.

The lever action of policy adjusting control is very apparent. For example, Georgia, the second-largest market for electric cars, is outselling California, the no. 1.

From the perspective of regional development pattern, the region with more policy support has become the fastest growing region in the us new energy vehicle market.

California accounts for more than half of all electric car ownership in America, thanks to strong local government support. Matt mistry, vice President of technology development at the air quality administration of southern California, said in an interview that the strong push from the California government has stimulated the development of the industry, which is an important reason for the development of new energy vehicles in the United States.

California, the no. 1 market for electric vehicles in the United States, has been "mandatory" to promote new energy vehicles.

Since the 1970s, California has enjoyed the right to set stricter fuel consumption standards in order to control air pollution, making it the state with the strictest environmental standards for automobiles and the state with the fastest development of new energy vehicles.

In 1990, California introduced a zero-emission vehicle program, which required automakers to develop all-electric vehicles and required new energy vehicle sales to reach 15 percent of total new vehicle sales.

In 2007, California subsidized pure electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and electric motorcycles through the clean vehicle subsidy program. They are entitled to different subsidy levels according to different car types. The state government will stipulate the total amount of subsidies in advance every time, generally taking the form of first come, first buy, first send to car buyers until the total amount of subsidies is used up.

"If you're going to sell cars in California, you're going to have to sell one in seven zero-emission cars by 2025," said Abdo Ayala, executive vice President of the California air resources commission. If you don't follow the rules, you must be punished.

Today, the American enthusiasm for electric vehicles is rising again, electric vehicles are also more and more occupy the market.

South Korea: promoting electric cars with 'world's highest level' subsidies

In recent years, the south Korean government has actively promoted the development of electric vehicle industry through technology research and development and government subsidies. However, insufficient charging station facilities and unstable and unbalanced subsidy policies remain two major obstacles to the development of South Korea's electric car industry.

Attach great importance to technological development

In February 2018, south Korean officials said at the "" future automotive industry symposium" "that the government will accelerate the development of technologies for electric cars and self-driving cars.

South Korea's ministry of industry and commerce said in its "future automotive industry development strategy" that it will significantly improve the range of electric vehicles and charging technology, the goal is that after a charge, electric vehicles can drive from Seoul to Busan, that is, the range of more than 500 kilometers, charging speed is more than twice the current.

The ministry also said the government plans to centralize the conversion of buses, taxis and small trucks into electric vehicles. The specific plan is to select five local autonomous groups in 2018, and replace 10% of the vehicles every year starting from 2019, until 2030, all the above types of vehicles will be converted to electric vehicles.

In addition, the south Korean government has decided to promote the recycling of discarded batteries of electric vehicles from 2018, as well as basic electric vehicle services such as electric vehicles' energy storage and interconnected power grid.

Data show that sales of electric cars in South Korea have risen sharply in the past two years. South Korea sold 2,907 electric cars in 2015 and 5,914 in 2016. South Korea aims to have 14,000 electric cars by 2017, according to a work report released by the ministry of environment in January 2017.

Implementation of "world's highest electric vehicle subsidy"

South Korean media said that South Korea has "the world's highest level of electric car subsidies."

According to a work report released by the environment ministry, subsidies for each electric vehicle in 2017 were similar to 2016, at 14 million won. Subsidies for electric cars are also expanding. In 2017, 101 local autonomous groups in South Korea offered subsidies for electric vehicles, 70 more than in 2016.

It is understood that in order to promote the popularity of electric cars, South Korea's environment ministry to buy electric cars consumers giving tax breaks to the purchaser in addition to the subsidies will be entitled for up to 4.6 million won, can also be exempted from individual consumption up to 2 million won, 600000 won the education tax and income tax of 1.4 million won, and this policy will maintain until 2018.

At present, the south Korean government is also in accordance with market conditions, constantly adjust the amount of electric car subsidies. Starting in 2018, consumers will receive subsidies ranging from 10.17 million won to 12 million won from the government, depending on the battery capacity, maximum range and environmental impact of the vehicles they buy. This is a slight reduction from the won14m per car quota in 2016.

The south Korean government has also increased support for the use of electric vehicles in taxis, vans, buses and other types of vehicles. According to relevant policies and regulations, electric taxis can receive subsidies of up to 12 million won. A subsidy of 20 million won will be given to electric goods vehicles with a one-ton load, and measures to encourage the replacement of diesel goods vehicles with electric goods vehicles will be introduced in the second half of this year; Subsidies for electric buses were also extended from small buses to medium and large buses, with 60 million won for medium buses and 100 million won for large buses.

At the same time, local governments are also increasing subsidies for new energy vehicles.

The number of new electric vehicles in Daejeon increased to 172 in 2017, a significant increase from 2016, according to the data. In terms of subsidies, the subsidy for each car in 2016 was 17 million won, a total of 42 cars were subsidized. In comparison, the amount and quantity of subsidies in 2017 both increased.

Since 2017, Juji city has also started to promote the popularization of electric vehicles to the public, subsidizing 4 electric models, namely KIA RAYEV, Renault Samsung sm3z.e., Hyundai IONIQ and KIA schur ev.the subsidy amount for each vehicle is 17 million won.

Busan city issued the "2017 electric vehicle popularization work announcement (revision)", it shows that the subsidy of each electric vehicle in Busan city reached 19 million won, the highest subsidy of electric vehicle charging station also reached 4 million won.

In Jeju, where electric cars are most popular and the related infrastructure is most complete, the government provides subsidies for Renault, Samsung sm3z.e., KIA RAYEV, KIA sauer EV, BMW i3, Nissan LEAF and other models, with a subsidy of 20 million won per car. According to incomplete statistics, 7,361 electric cars in Jeju have received government subsidies. In addition, Jeju city has decided to purchase an additional 152 official electric vehicles.

Basic supporting facilities are still inadequate

Apart from spotty government subsidies, inadequate infrastructure such as charging stations remains a stumbling block to ev adoption in South Korea. The number of charging stations in South Korea has increased dramatically in recent years, but the number is still far from enough compared with the 25,000 registered electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, the distribution of charging stations varies from region to region. Data shows that the distribution of electric vehicle charging stations in South Korea is mainly in the capital circle and Jeju. Gyeonggi province had the largest number of 574 charging stations and 1,013 chargers. It was followed by Seoul (524, 1003), Gyeongsang road (397, 615), jeju (367, 595) and Chung Ching road (286, 405). That compares with just 29 charging stations and 42 chargers in Ulsan.

Analysts in the south Korean media blame unstable and unbalanced subsidies for the situation. The government has sometimes cited budget shortfalls as a reason to reduce its budget for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, compared with the won23m subsidies offered by some local governments, there are no subsidies for electric cars in Ningyue, Huachuan, Baocheng, Xianping and Jindo.

The south Korean government has also recognized the problem of insufficient charging stations and started to pay attention to the corresponding infrastructure construction. According to data released by the ministry of environment, the number of charging devices in South Korea increased from 750 in 2016 to 1,801 in 2017. The number is expected to soar to 3,941 in 2018. However, the number of charging stations is far from enough compared with the number of nearly 12,000 gas stations nationwide.

To this end, the ministry of industry and commerce said the government and related agencies plan to set up 1,500 fast-charging stations every year, centering on major crowd centers such as supermarkets. By 2020, the number of fast-charging stations nationwide will be close to the number of gas stations.

The environment ministry also plans to subsidize the purchase of personal chargers for car buyers. Among them, slow charger can subsidize up to 3 million won, mobile charger can subsidize up to 600,000 won.

Several local governments have also introduced corresponding measures. For example, on the basis of the construction of 3 public extreme speed charging stations in 2017, Daejeon city plans to build 15 additional extreme speed charging stations in 2018. Busan city also proposed a subsidy of up to 4 million won for each electric vehicle charging station in its "2017 electric vehicle popularization work announcement".

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