Automakers Try To Convince Chinese To Drive Green

The boom in car ownership in China has brought with it many problems familiar to Americans: bad traffic, of course, but also more pollution. So the Chinese government and the auto companies are trying to push a new generation of environmentally friendly car.
But it's not proving easy.
Nancy Gioia, Ford's director of global electrification, has the somewhat unenviable task of persuading a Chinese public in the first flush of gasoline-powered capitalism to park the Hummer and roll out the Ford hybrid.
Eighty percent of car buyers last year were first-time purchasers, and Gioia is under no illusions that getting China to go green will be easy.
"One of the challenges we have in China is not that electrification will come, it's that our desire to have it tomorrow can't be met because the customer has to be willing," Gioia says. "Here in China the second large challenge is infrastructure."

Enlarge Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images Green car technology is still in its infancy in China, and there's little uniformity in the way of infrastructure to support the vehicles, like this concept car with solar panels, made by Roewe, seen at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

Green car technology is still in its infancy in China, and there's little uniformity in the way of infrastructure to support the vehicles, like this concept car with solar panels, made by Roewe, seen at the Shanghai Auto Show.

The challenge of infrastructure is that most urban Chinese people live in high-rise apartment blocks, so charging electric or hybrid cars is difficult.
Ford is rolling out demonstration models, though none of them is yet on sale in China. Chinese companies have jumped into the green car business, too. One company, from the southern city of Shenzhen, is BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams.
Paul Lin, senior marketing manager for BYD, says he thinks the dreams of Chinese drivers are less entrenched than their gas-guzzling American counterparts. Chinese are different from Americans and Europeans, he says.
"You people are familiar with cars and petroleum combined together," Lin says. "For Chinese, we don't have those deep habits to using that kind of car, so we can be easy to change."
Not Enough Government Control?
Inside the cavernous exhibition hall at the Shanghai auto show, it seems there's a presentation of a new model of green car almost every minute, usually with a tall, beautiful female model draped across its hood. But even tall, beautiful female models may not be yet enough to persuade the Chinese public.
"The green technology is not mature enough yet," says 25-year-old visitor Tang Xuejun. "I won't consider buying a green car for another four or five years."
Guo Bing, 30, won't be buying an electric car either, since he has nowhere to charge it.

China is working hard to become the global leader in clean energy technology, like solar and wind.

In addition to general suspicions of new technology and logistics of where to plug the cars in, there is also a huge problem with Chinese government oversight and regulation.
John Zeng of auto consulting firm J.D. Power in Shanghai says the government wants to see people buy more cars generally to boost industrial growth, but there are a whole array of different standards for charging stations, batteries and all the infrastructure needed for the green car industry.