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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2017)
ASIA / PACIFIC May 1, 2017 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5 China car dilemma: Beijing wants electric, buyers want SUVs By Joe McDonald AP Business Writer EIJING — Automakers face a dilemma in China’s huge but crowded market: Regula- tors are pushing them to sell electric cars, but buyers want gas-guzzling SUVs. The industry is rattled by Beijing’s proposal to require that electric cars make up eight percent of every brand’s production as soon as next year. Consumers are steering the other way: First-quarter SUV sales soared 21 percent from a year earlier to 2.4 million, while electric vehicle purchases sank 4.4 percent to just 55,929. “It’s tough for someone with an EV to come and take away market share from SUVs,” said Ben Cavender of China Market Research Group. Last month, the Shanghai auto show showcased work on electric models meant to appeal to Chinese drivers who are wary of the unfamil- iar technology’s reliability and cost. The pressure for electrification in China is an added headache for automakers at a time when sales growth is slowing and competition is heating up in a market they are counting on to drive global revenue. Sales growth fell to 1.7 percent in March from last year’s 15 percent. SUVs made up 40 percent of sales, while sedan purchases fell 4.9 percent. At the Shanghai show, the industry’s biggest marketing event this year, almost every global and Chinese brand displayed at least an electric concept car, if not a model ready for sale, alongside its latest SUVs and sedans. General Motors Co.’s Buick unit has announced plans for Chinese sales of its Velite 5 gasoline-electric hybrid sedan. Buick also sells a hybrid LaCrosse in China. In April, Ford Motor Co. said it would sell an all-electric SUV and a plug-in hybrid Mondeo Energi sedan in China. Ford’s joint venture with state-owned Changan Automobile Co. will manufacture the Mondeo. Ford said by 2025 it plans to offer electric versions of 70 percent of its models sold in China. “We are prioritizing our electrifica- tion efforts on China to reflect its importance as a global electrified vehicle market,” Ford CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. NextEV, a Shanghai-based startup, displayed 11 vehicles in Shanghai from its all-electric NIO brand. They include the two-door EP9, a contender for the title of fastest electric car, with what the B NO COKE. A can of Air Koryo cola, left, produced by Air Koryo, North Korea’s flagship airline that recently introduced its own brand of cola on flights to and from Beijing, is seen in Pyongyang, North Korea. Coca-Cola is possibly the world’s most recognizable brand, an almost inescapable symbol of the global appeal of American-style consumer culture. There are only two countries in the world where Coke doesn’t officially operate, and one of them is North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E) Coca-Cola in North Korea? It’s (usually not) the Real Thing By Eric Talmadge The Associated Press YONGYANG, North Korea — Coca-Cola is possibly the world’s most recognizable brand, an almost inescapable symbol of the global appeal of American-style consumer culture. There are only two countries in the world where Coke doesn’t officially operate, and one of them is North Korea. But even the North is developing quite a taste for cola — though the iconic red-and-white labelled bottles the cola comes in likely are not exactly the Real Thing and their twist tops need a bit more than the usual caution. They have a tendency to leak or refuse to come off at all. North Korea and Cuba are the only countries where Coca-Cola Co. has no operations, said communications director Ann Moore. Coke doesn’t do business with either because of sanctions. That doesn’t stop Coke making its way over the North Korean border, however. Coke bottled in China and bearing Chinese labels isn’t hard to find in North Korea’s relatively affluent capital, Pyongyang. It is sold in upscale grocery stores that cater to the capital’s elite and a growing number of middle-class residents, who are increasingly earning enough hard cash through entrepreneurial side businesses to purchase more than bare necessities. Coke from China can also be quaffed in international hotels frequented by both locals who can afford their high prices and foreign tourists and business people, most of them from China as well. Pepsi sightings are rarer. The cola served at restaurants and lining the shelves in stores where more typical North Koreans shop are likely to be local imitations, though one of the more popular ones could, from a distance, easily pass as a Coke. Its 1.25-liter bottle has the same Coke shape, the Coke-like red-and-white label, the distinctive red cap. But instead of the usual Chinese phonetic characters for Coca-Cola, it has “Cocoa-flavored Sweet Soda Drink” splashed across its label in yellow Korean lettering. The label also prominently features a bar code and the universally recognized anti-littering logo of a person responsibly tossing his trash in a bin. It includes a calorie count and the address and phone number of the bottler, the Wonbong Trading Co. in Pyongyang. Such numbers can only be accessed by North Koreans using the North Korean phone network. So no comment there. How does it taste? Not bad, it turns out. Good fizz. Indistinguishable appearance. If you like Coke, it’s a very good facsimile. Some other similar sodas claiming to be cocoa-flavored but not aiming to match Coke’s taste do in fact taste like chocolate. Back in 2000, when ties between the U.S. and North Korea were going through something of a thaw, there were widespread rumors that Coke was on the verge of officially breaking into the market. Blame North Korea’s decision to develop nuclear weapons for dooming that plan. The locally bottled versions of Coke-like drinks have filled the vacuum. Air Koryo, the country’s flagship airline, recently introduced its own brand of cola on flights to and from Beijing. That’s not quite as odd as it might sound. Like many large state-run enterprises, the airline also operates a fleet of taxis, has at least one gas station in Pyongyang, and puts its name on other soft drinks in order to turn a profit. P EVs vs. SUVs. A visitor looks at a concept electric car system called the ZOE at the Renault stand during the Auto Shanghai 2017 show at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, China. Models on display at the show, the global industry’s biggest marketing event of the year, re- flect the conflict between Beijing’s ambitions to promote environmentally friendly propulsion and Chinese consumers’ love of hulking, fuel-hungry SUVs. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) manufacturer says is a top speed of electrics but most sold only a few hundred vehicles last year. That is 194 mph (310 kph). Volkswagen AG announced its partly because their vehicles cost up electric vehicle plans for China and to 350,000 yuan ($50,000), or two to unveiled an electric concept car. three times the price of equivalent Honda Motor Co. showed its new gasoline models. Even Great Wall Motors Ltd., NeuV, a futuristic concept car the company has suggested might get an which became China’s most profit- electric drivetrain. able auto brand by making almost Government planners see electric nothing but SUVs, has unveiled an vehicles as a sector where China can electric compact sedan, the C30 EV, lead, and a cabinet technology devel- which looks almost comically small opment plan issued in 2013 calls for next to the other hulking vehicles. It two of the top global brands in 2025 to has yet to say when sales will start. be Chinese. Some brands promise a range of up Hence the proposal, released in to 120 miles on one charge. But September, calling for electric or industry analysts say that is too gasoline-electric hybrids to make up much money and too short a distance eight percent of every automaker’s for most drivers, who have few places output next year. That would rise to to recharge. 10 percent in 2019 and 12 percent in “The biggest worries for people 2020. buying an electric car are lack of Manufacturers failing to meet convenience for charging and the those targets could buy credits from miserable range most electric cars companies that produce more have,” said Zhang Xin, an electrics, helping to subsidize independent auto industry analyst. development. To ease such “range anxiety,” the People in the industry say manu- cabinet has ordered the state-owned facturers have warned Beijing those power industry to step up installation targets are too ambitious. News of charging stations. reports say regulators might have Government plans call for China to agreed to lower or delay them in an have 100,000 public charging updated plan due out this year, but stations and 800,000 private stations there has been no official confirma- by next year, up from a total of 50,000 tion. at the start of 2016. Longer term, the China’s stand-out EV success so far government wants a network that is BYD Auto Co. It sells all-electric can support 5 million vehicles by vehicles to taxi and bus fleets in 2020. China and abroad and gasoline- The government also is trying to electric hybrid SUVs and sedans to nudge buyers toward electrics by Chinese consumers. exempting them from sales taxes and BYD Auto says last year’s sales from license plate fees and lotteries rose 70 percent over 2015 to 100,183 imposed by Beijing, Shanghai, and vehicles. That would make it the some other cities to curb congestion. biggest electric brand for a second Aside from BYD, Chinese manu- year, with Tesla Inc. in second place facturers are waiting to see what at 76,230 vehicles sold. price regulators set for credits before Other Chinese brands offer plug-in Continued on page 9 New Owners Newly remodeled All new equipment. Belmont Eco Laundry has large capacity washers and dryers, perfect for those comforters, sleeping bags, big family loads, work clothes, and more! You’ll get your laundry done in record time, leaving you time to spend with family and friends. Visit us at Belmontecolaundry.com for more details. 4725 SE Belmont St. Open daily 8 to 10 Read The AR online: <www.asianreporter.com> Project U pdates T he Oregon Department of Transportation invites you to provide input on amendments to projects in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. O n the 1st and 16th of each month, O D O T will post for review changes made in the previous 15 days \to projects in the STIP; we invite you to check in regularly and provide comments. Please visit: www.oregon.gov/O D O T/TD /STIP/Pages/STIPD ocs.aspx (under the heading “STIP Amendments for Public Review”). Send comments to: O regonD O TSTIP@ odot.state.or.us or mail to: STIP Amendment, 555 E. 13th St. N E, Salem, O R 97301