Wang Zidong: Market Share of Electric Vehicles will Continuously Increase in Future Ten Years

What is most important is that we open up the whole storagebattery production and utilization industry chain in China. Only by doing socan we make it a circle where there are people producing it, some buying it,some utilizing it, some reproducing it and some recycling it. Only when we makecapital and initiative flow can we make money.

Reporter: Ni Jiawei

Reporter: You have mentioned during roundtable speech that weshould draw some lessons from several battery accidents, and one of them isthat we should not blindly pursue endurance mileage, acceleration and fastcharge. However, for ordinary people, their requirements for electric vehiclesare that they can go long way, have good acceleration function and fast charge.Then, what angle do you take when you propose such point of view?

Wang Zidong: In fact, endurance ability is not an index of techniquefor storage batteries. It is easy to understand because for a electric vehicle,the more batteries it carries, it gains longer endurance mileages, yet on theother hand, the more batteries it carries, the heavier it becomes, while willlead to many other problems. 

Also, fast charge is not as easy as we imagine. Nowadays, fastcharge will reduce use time of battery, which I have already mentioned indiscussion. A lot of batteries of laptops and electric vehicles are worn out,and a very important reason for that is charge. Present way of battery chargewas introduced to us by Japanese battery production enterprises in 1990.Whether there are more suitable charge ways remains to be discovered. 

As to constant voltage charge, it is an issue of technique andremains to be improved. Judging from current technical level of storage batteryfor electric vehicles, we still have a long way to go before meeting variousindexes of fuel vehicles. 

Reporter: Is there a long-term goal and requirement fordomestic storage battery development? Can we learn something from overseas?

Wang Zidong: Overseas technique is indeed a littlebit advanced than ours. Compared with foreign countries, we have largeimprovement space in stability control of materials, automation degree ofbattery production, combination technique of battery and development of ourwhole industry chain. Yet, judging from battery for electric vehicle, nocountry has achieved mature development. Maturity of a product means that itcan become a good and thus circulate freely in the market. Only when domesticstorage battery reaches such level can it be called mature. 

Reporter: I notice that government has provided many capitaland policy support in domestic electric vehicle industry development.

Wang Zidong: Judging from electric vehicle development, we doneed government’s support, especially pulling in the early stage. Once electricvehicle industry technique matures, we need to give it to the market for test.Whether we can make a good real or not mainly depends on test of free market,just like private car. Things that ordinary people are willing to buy withoutgovernment subsidies can be called a good, or else it cannot develop merelyupon subsidies. In the future, China will definitely shift from governmentleading mode to policy and capital support.   

Reporter: As far as I know, currently some cities are launchingpriority promotion of electric buses and city special electric vehicles, suchas Beijing, Shenzhen, etc., and several domestic automobile companies such asChina FAW, An Kai, and Yu Tong have also shown their independently developedpure electric buses, of which some have already left the assembly, and somehave already been put to test operation. Do you agree with these actions?

Wang Zidong: In fact, I think current development level is notsuitable for electric buses and city special electric cars. It has not beenlong since development of new technique of electric vehicle storage battery,and therefore there are many things to be tested. As I just said, the techniqueof electric vehicle is far from that of fuel vehicle. At the same time,electric buses need to carry heavy loading and long mileages, while thereliability is hard to control. If we attach a technically immature product toa vehicle of large loading and poor operation mode, we more or less spoilthings by excessive enthusiasm. Therefore, electric vehicle technique is notsuitable for buses, and thus I suggest we have more technique considerations onsuch thing because technically speaking, it is not mature enough.  

Reporter: Which respect do you suggest should governmentprovide policy support?

Wang Zidong: We cannot partially focuson a specific respect.What is mostimportant is that we open up the whole storage battery production andutilization industry chain in China. Only by doing so can we make it a circlewhere there are people producing it, some buying it, some utilizing it, somereproducing it and some recycling it. Only when we make capital and initiativeflow can we make money.

Reporter: As you said, government is main force to pushelectric vehicle industry development in current stage. In 2010, Ministry ofFinance and National Development and Reform Commission, etc. Have already setup five model cities of providing purchasing subsidies for new energy vehicles.Cities like Beijing, Shenzhen etc. have already passed implementation planslast year, yet as of now Shanghai’s implementation plan has not been carriedout. Do you think that there are shortages in Shanghai government’s efforts topush electric vehicle industry development? 

Wang Zidong: I don’t think we can easily draw a conclusionsimply on a group of data. Shanghai municipal government has indeed made greatefforts in pushing electric vehicle development. The government is sensible intaking action, not that it is taking no action.

Reporter: Judging from current domestic situation, consumermarket of electric vehicle is a little bit cold. Many consumers still hold “waitand see” attitude toward electric vehicle. Do you think such phenomenon willturn better in the future ten years?

Wang Zidong: There are many factors for limited acceptance of electric vehiclesin current stage, yet these problems will be solved one by one in the future.It is a definite tendency that occupation rate of electric vehicle willcontinuously increase in the future ten years both because of requirements ofscientific advancement and senses of energy saving and emission reduction. 

Introduction of WangZidong:

Director of StorageBattery Lab of China North Vehicle Research Institute, Director of National 863Electric Vehicle Storage Battery Test Center, No.1 authority in China electricvehicle