The Beijing Auto Show features the latest environmentally friendly cars this week. However, sales of hybrid engines and electric cars are slow starters in China.
The Wall Street Journal writes that environmentally friendly car sales are well down on ordinary vehicles. Toyota, for instance, introduced its Prius hybrid three years ago but only sold around 400 of these cars last year. Honda has sold only 150 of its Civic hybrids since November 2007.
"Chinese consumer awareness of the environment is still relatively low," WSJ quoted Hitoshi Yokoyama, Toyota's Spokesman in China. While passenger car sales in China increased more than 20 per cent to 5.2 million cars last year, 'green' cars are hard to find on China's streets. For some experts this is not surprising, as foreign cars are heavily taxed and wealthy Chinese would rather opt for a SUV instead of a Prius or Civic. The government duties on imported parts brings the price of environmentally friendly cars near to the level of SUVs, around USD40,000, twice as much as American consumers pay.
'Green' cars must become cheaper to be competitive in the marketplace, it seems. GM's Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in Beijing that the ultimate challenge is whether the automobile industry "can get the cost down on hybrids enough to get them to pay off for the average guy"
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