'Big Chery' Has Big Electric Plans: Will They Prove too Ambitious?

Well, nobody can accuse Wuhi, China-based Chery Automobile of a lack of ambition. The company plans to bring three electric vehicles and two hybrid-electric cars to the market by next year, director Yin Tongyue told the Xinkuai Newspaper (hat tip Gasgoo.com and AutoblogGreen).

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But it could prove more difficult to turn electric concept vehicles into real production vehicles than Chery expects. After all, other ambitious companies have taken longer to mass produce new electric cars, from the time they unveiled their concepts, and delays have been a common occurrence. Tesla Motors suffered several well-publicized delays in the delivery of its first electric car, the Roadster, due to transmission troubles. The company had delivered only 300 of the sports cars by early this month, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Venturi, which originally intended to begin production of its Fetish sports car in 2007, now plans to deliver the first Fetish in June. And Phoenix Motorcars, after two years trying to produce electric trucks and SUVs for the fleet market, has filed for bankruptcy, as we noted earlier today.

Founded in 1997, Chery produced its first car in 1999 and announced it had exceeded 1.5 million in car sales earlier this month. So it is used to working fast.

Tongyue said the company already began producing its S18, an electric sedan, in February, and plans to begin selling the car at the end of this year or beginning of next year. Chery displayed the two other planned electric vehicles, a minivan, called the Riich M1 EV, and a small SUV called the Tiggo 3 EV, as concepts at the Shanghai Motor Show last week. The automaker also plans to make hybrid versions of its A3, a compact car, and a coupe called Futwin Coupe II.

But Chery isn’t unaccustomed to setbacks either. The company in 2007 ended plans to develop cars with Chrysler.

It also can expect plenty of competition. Aside from the above-mentioned cars, there’s the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid and Tesla Motor’s Model S, a midrange electric sedan.

And last month, Norway’s Think announced plans to bring its Think City electric car to the country by 2010. In January, the company got a bridge loan to keep it afloat, after it had halted production.

Even if Chery can get all of its planned models out on time, Mike Omotoso, senior manager of global powertrain research at JD Power, thinks five is too many for the market. So far, BYD, a Chinese company that launched its electric F3DM car in December, “hasn’t sold too many of their vehicles,” he said. While JD Power expects the Chery S18 to be more successful than the F3DM — it’s priced at $14,600, as opposed to $22,000 — the price is still high compared with regular gasoline vehicles in China, he said.

“Technically they can do it, but I don’t think there’s a market for five electric vehicles in such a short period of time,” he said. “The price of gas needs to go up significantly before there’s more demand for electric vehicles, whether in China, here, or anyone else.”

Photo courtesy Chery International

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