時事新聞:比亞迪敦促政府爲環保汽車提供補貼

【英文原文】

China Urged To Subsidize Green Vehicles

The head of BYD Co., one of China's leading makers of electric vehicles, urged the Chinese government to subsidize private purchases of all-electric battery cars and other 'new energy' vehicles, saying their widespread adoption in China depends on it.

Speaking at an industry conference Sunday, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said a lack of consumer incentives and subsidies has kept BYD from making a plug-in hybrid car available for private buyers. He warned that a continued lack of government assistance might doom all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the marketplace because of their currently high cost.

'We're at a critical make-or-break juncture in our effort' to make electric vehicles mainstream, Mr. Wang told the conference. To help accelerate an adoption of heavily electrified vehicles 'the government needs to play a key role and help us reduce their cost, especially for private buyers.'

Mr. Wang called for rebates, tax cuts, and policies to pave the way for more taxi companies to use electric cabs, among other measures.

BYD, which makes both batteries and cars and is part-owned by a company controlled by American investor Warren Buffett, is gearing to launch an all-electric battery car called e6 in China this year. The Shenzhen-based company already sells a plug-in hybrid car here called the F3DM, with a small gasoline engine to charge its batteries. BYD began selling the F3DM in December to fleet customers, such as banks, but hasn't made it available for consumers. Mr. Wang has said the delay is because the car, priced at about 150,000 yuan, or roughly $22,000, is too expensive for most private buyers in China.

Mr. Wang and other industry and government officials at the Tianjin conference pointed to what they described as good prospects overall for electrified 'green' cars to become more mainstream. But it remains unclear whether makers of environmentally friendly cars like BYD might get the consumer incentives they are looking for.

One senior Chinese industrial policy maker, speaking at the conference Sunday, pointed to reservations among some Chinese officials about providing consumer incentives to spur electric-car sales. 'Why do we need to provide subsidies and rebates for wealthy private buyers who would be the first in line to buy electric cars? That's a question some of us in the government are asking,' said Chen Jianguo, a senior official at the National Development and Reform Commission, China's main economic planning agency.

Other officials sounded a more enthusiastic note. Wan Gang, China's minister of science and technology, told the conference that electric vehicles provided opportunities for China to 'catch up with and exceed developed countries' in the auto industry.

They are a 'key driver for a new economy' for the world, but an especially strategic area of interest for China, he said. He pointed to the advantage of large deposits within China of lithium and other rare-earth metals that are needed to produce key electric car components, such as batteries and high-power electric motors, and improve their performance.

New-energy cars are 'the way forward' and 'a new source of growth' for China, and the country thus stands ready to allot more subsidies to accelerate related research and development activity, he said.

【中文譯文】

比亞迪股份有限公司(BYD Co.)的負責人敦促政府補貼私人購買純電動轎車和其它新能源汽車，稱這類汽車的普及取決於這些政策。比亞迪是中國最大的電動轎車製造商之一。

比亞迪主席王傳福在週日的一個業界會議上表示，缺乏對消費者的鼓勵和補貼阻礙了比亞迪生產出適合私人買家的充電式混合動力車。他警告說，由於目前的成本居高不下，繼續缺乏政府的扶持可能沉重打擊純電動轎車和充電式混合動力車。

王傳福在會上說，電動車正處於是否能走向主流化的決定性關口。爲了加快電動車的普及，政府需要發揮關鍵作用，幫助降低購車者，尤其是私人買家的成本。

王傳福呼籲採取折扣、減稅和在政策方面爲更多出租車公司採用電動轎車鋪平道路。

比亞迪既生產電池，也生產汽車。美國投資者巴菲特(Warren Buffett)控股的一家公司持有比亞迪的部分股份。比亞迪計劃今年在中國推出名爲E6純電動車。這家總部位於深圳的公司已經在國內銷售名爲F3DM的一款混合動力車，這款車可以通過一臺小型汽油發動機給電池充電。比亞迪從去年12月開始向銀行等集團客戶出售F3DM，但還未向普通消費者銷售。王傳福說，遲遲未公開銷售是由於這款車的定價高達15萬元左右（約合22,000美元），對中國大多數私人買家來說售價太高。

王傳福和其他行業及政府官員在天津的會議上都提到，電動“綠色”汽車面臨着日益成爲市場主流的良好前景。但目前還不清楚像比亞迪這樣的環保汽車製造商能否得到所要求的消費鼓勵措施。

中國一位資深產業政策制訂者週日在會上指出，部分政府官員對出臺刺激電動轎車銷售的政策持保留態度。國家發改委高級官員陳建國說，政府中有些人提出，我們還有那麼多貧困人羣，他們需要政府補貼，能夠買汽車的人相對比較富裕，政府是不是有必要給予補貼？

也有官員發表了更爲積極的觀點。中國科技部部長萬鋼在會上說，電動汽車爲中國在汽車業上“趕超發達國家”帶來了機會。

萬鋼說，它們是全球“新經濟的主要推動力”，也是對中國具有特別戰略意義的領域。他提到，中國境內豐富的鋰和其它稀有金屬儲藏是其中的一個優勢。這些金屬是生產電池和大功率電動馬達等電動汽車關鍵部件和提高性能所必需的。

他說，新能源轎車“前進的方向”和中國“一個新的經濟增長點”，因此國家應準備對相關研發活動加大補貼力度。