时事新闻:比亚迪敦促政府为环保汽车提供补贴

【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.

【中文译文】

比亚迪股份有限公司(BYD Co.)的负责人敦促政府补贴私人购买纯电动轿车和其它新能源汽车，称这类汽车的普及取决于这些政策。比亚迪是中国最大的电动轿车制造商之一。

比亚迪主席王传福在周日的一个业界会议上表示，缺乏对消费者的鼓励和补贴阻碍了比亚迪生产出适合私人买家的充电式混合动力车。他警告说，由于目前的成本居高不下，继续缺乏政府的扶持可能沉重打击纯电动轿车和充电式混合动力车。

王传福在会上说，电动车正处于是否能走向主流化的决定性关口。为了加快电动车的普及，政府需要发挥关键作用，帮助降低购车者，尤其是私人买家的成本。

王传福呼吁采取折扣、减税和在政策方面为更多出租车公司采用电动轿车铺平道路。

比亚迪既生产电池，也生产汽车。美国投资者巴菲特(Warren Buffett)控股的一家公司持有比亚迪的部分股份。比亚迪计划今年在中国推出名为E6纯电动车。这家总部位于深圳的公司已经在国内销售名为F3DM的一款混合动力车，这款车可以通过一台小型汽油发动机给电池充电。比亚迪从去年12月开始向银行等集团客户出售F3DM，但还未向普通消费者销售。王传福说，迟迟未公开销售是由于这款车的定价高达15万元左右（约合22,000美元），对中国大多数私人买家来说售价太高。

王传福和其他行业及政府官员在天津的会议上都提到，电动“绿色”汽车面临着日益成为市场主流的良好前景。但目前还不清楚像比亚迪这样的环保汽车制造商能否得到所要求的消费鼓励措施。

中国一位资深产业政策制订者周日在会上指出，部分政府官员对出台刺激电动轿车销售的政策持保留态度。国家发改委高级官员陈建国说，政府中有些人提出，我们还有那么多贫困人群，他们需要政府补贴，能够买汽车的人相对比较富裕，政府是不是有必要给予补贴？

也有官员发表了更为积极的观点。中国科技部部长万钢在会上说，电动汽车为中国在汽车业上“赶超发达国家”带来了机会。

万钢说，它们是全球“新经济的主要推动力”，也是对中国具有特别战略意义的领域。他提到，中国境内丰富的锂和其它稀有金属储藏是其中的一个优势。这些金属是生产电池和大功率电动马达等电动汽车关键部件和提高性能所必需的。

他说，新能源轿车“前进的方向”和中国“一个新的经济增长点”，因此国家应准备对相关研发活动加大补贴力度。