Skip to main content

Chinese white paper explores new business model for electric vehicles

China’s State Council has released a white paper that explores the possible business development model for electric vehicles in the country. After comparing the differences between electric and conventional gasoline vehicles, the white paper points out the market barriers faced by EVs in China: limited range when compared to gasoline, high cost, slow charging and insufficient charging stations The paper argues that China needs to develop an innovative business model to overcome these market barriers since t
October 11, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
China’s State Council has released a white paper that explores the possible business development model for electric vehicles in the country.

After comparing the differences between electric and conventional gasoline vehicles, the white paper points out the market barriers faced by EVs in China: limited range when compared to gasoline, high cost, slow charging and insufficient charging stations

The paper argues that China needs to develop an innovative business model to overcome these market barriers since the technical barriers cannot be solved immediately, and supports an approach whereby a battery swapping model and an electric vehicle rental network combined could provide the means to overcome the market barriers that electric vehicles currently face in China.

The paper maintains that battery swapping is suitable for the Chinese market and can potentially overcome electric vehicle weaknesses of slow charging, high initial cost and limited range, provided sufficient battery switch stations are available.  An EV rental network in cities is the preferable solution for reducing initial cost of purchasing electric vehicles, and could optimise EV utilisation.

The paper points out the potential for electric vehicles to be mass marketed in China, an argument supported by the successful e-bike market in the country.  Unlike many western counties, electric bikes are not niche products but widely used in China, where there were already 120 million e-bikes on the road by the end of 2010. The same success story could be attainable in the EV market.

Related Content

  • Sampo Hietanen’s mobility mission
    June 17, 2016
    For a decade Sampo Hietanen harboured a vision of an alternative form of mobility, now as CEO of MaaS Finland he is putting theory into practice. Sampo Hietanen has become the embodiment of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a concept he created 10 years ago while working for Finnish civil engineering giant Destia. “I had been working with the mobile sector on traffic information and started thinking what will happen when this becomes bigger,” he says.
  • Plastic is fantastic for payment platform interoperability
    April 2, 2014
    The Sino Visitor Pass aims to promote trade between Singapore and China by making travel easier, as Jon Masters finds out. Singapore has notched up another first in transportation innovation with announcement of a dual-currency payment card in partnership with the province of Guangdong in China. From the middle of 2014, visitors to Singapore and Guangdong will be able to use a ‘Sino Visitor Pass’ to pay for use of public transportation among other things.
  • Plastic is fantastic for payment platform interoperability
    April 2, 2014
    The Sino Visitor Pass aims to promote trade between Singapore and China by making travel easier, as Jon Masters finds out. Singapore has notched up another first in transportation innovation with announcement of a dual-currency payment card in partnership with the province of Guangdong in China. From the middle of 2014, visitors to Singapore and Guangdong will be able to use a ‘Sino Visitor Pass’ to pay for use of public transportation among other things.
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin