Despite record car sales in China, Toyota only sold 1 Prius... China's love affair with the car shuns green vehicles | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Looks like smog developing in that photo on the link! What is the pollution control like in China? Is it similar to the US and Euro regulations or is it zero? Do manufacturers build cars for the China market without the emission equipment to cut costs or do they leave as is?
Repost, please see http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...y-people-bought-prius-in-china-last-year.html
The Prius costs too much in China . . . . . especially comparred to the fake Chinese knockoff: Those babys will give you way more bang for your buck - and think how much better the rolling resistance is with ony 3 wheels. .
Whoops. So it is. That didn't show up on a search although it is a slightly different Guardian article.
BTW, what is the market share of Toyota in China? Japanese car-makers generally? Has Toyota issued any statements about why it isn't selling Prius in China? Is Toyota selling other hybrids in China? Are other companies? Inquiring minds want to know.
From what I've heard it's not large for Toyota nor Japanese automakers there. GM, IIRC has a fairly large share. VWs seem pretty popular too. Apparently, the car to have in China is a black Buick. Go figure. I've seen some documentaries on China, mainly on CNBC, and it seems American automakers, esp. GM have a fairly good rep there. The makeup of cars (at least as taxis) there seems to really vary a lot by city. Seem to be a lot of Hyundai taxis in Beijing whereas in Shanghai it was a lot of VW Santanas. edit: I wish I something pretty complete in tabular form, but here are some stats: http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/20/autoshow-china-idUSTOE6BF04B20101220 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...wdown-may-reclaim-sales-lead-from-toyota.html
toyota sold over 800,000 cars in China last year. If it is true that they sold 1 Prius, it means Prius was not on sale in China at all last year. You would have to have a lot more sales than that for car on sale and company that sells over 800,000 cars in a year there... dealers alone would have to buy few hundred for demos.
Their policy is flawed with heavy incentives to EVs and ignored the hybrids. They just realized it and are working on a new plan. We should out soon.
On the Buick--I don't know why the Buick is popular in China--but I do remember several years ago when GM consolidated its brands. It kept "Buick" and ditched "Oldsmobile" because of the value of the Buick name in China.
, I just can't stop laughing at the likely driver of the 3-wheeled Prius in a matching red helmet and a pair of rubber boots!
I believe Japan's recent pass with China was pointed out earlier. There is also a general, this might be too strong a term, racism of neighboring people in that area of the world. Maybe that's changed, but it was true in the past. Now, during WW2, the US supported China against Japan. There was even volunteer forces there before the US officially entered war. On top of that, there may be memories of the very well to do and government officials going around in Buicks before the Communist rise to power.
China has its own electric cars in the works: the government has a mandate to convert to electric cars to control emissions. They are much further ahead in this respect than America, which is impeded by special interests. It's a shame what has happened in this country since Nixon and Carter put catalytic converters on cars in the mid 70s--and raised mpg standards. We were way ahead of Europe in that respect for decades. But everybody seems to have caught up with us, and we are no longer in a leadership position in environmental matters. Blame it on the triumph of special interests, which is where politicians get most of the money they need to get reelected--thanks to the high costs of TV advertising. The media made a billion dollars off Obama and McCain the last Presidential election, folks. That's politics, American style.
Buick probably would be out of business were it not for its strong presence in China. Lots of big black Buick SUVs sold and leased over there the past 10 or so years--mainly to companies and well-to-dos. You wonder how long that will keep up, though, with the Chinese building a domestic car industry and moving to greener cars.
I'll bet the one Prius sold in China was to an automaker that disassembled it and tried to reverse engineer it to make a cheap knock-off without any safety features or warranty. If not, then this gives the rest of us national security as China will be dependent upon crude oil in the future and spend massive amounts of money on foreign oil.
