China's Chery Unveils Electric Vehicle; S18 Minicar Will Sell for Less Than $15,000
By Scott Doggett February 23, 2009
Chery Automobile has unveiled its first self-developed plug-in electric vehicle, the S18, and the Chinese automaker has rival BYD squarely in its sights.
This news comes courtesy of our sister site, Edmunds.com's Inside Line. According to its report, the zero-emissions S18 is powered by a lithium-ion phosphate battery, can run up to 93 miles on one charge and has a maximum speed of 75 mph.
Chery said the battery can be fully charged in four to six hours using a standard household electrical outlet. Specially designed charging devices let owners get the car 80 percent charged in only 30 minutes.
A Chery official said the model will be on sale in the market within a year, priced at about $14,600. The first vehicles will be provided to government institutions for trial use.
Chery, which launched a prototype hybrid last month that could save up to 10 percent on fuel consumption, also plans to launch a midlevel hybrid this year.
Chinese carmakers are racing to launch new-energy vehicles in the wake of a central government decision to put 60,000 new-energy vehicles on the roads nationwide by 2012. To that end, the government is offering subsidies of up to $36,500 to consumers to encourage them to buy hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles.
Besides Chery, nearly all of China's major automakers have invested heavily in new-energy vehicles. BYD launched the world's first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle, the F3DM, in December.
Only time will tell which Chinese EV will make it to the U.S. first.
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The fact that some people never heard of BYD electric car wasn?t too surprising for me. Despite the fervor for electric cars, the BYD electric car is made by BYD Auto, an auto-manufacturing firm in China. The F3DM, their electric model, was unveiled in December, but it hasn't been selling and, as of now, the public isn't eligible to line up personal loans to get one, as it's aimed at fleet applications. However, they do plan to vamp up to mass production, but the cost is still a bit prohibitive ? coming out to about $22,000 USD. Still, let us hope that some people line up for installment loans for green vehicles like the BYD electric car.
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