Not all "automakers with centuries of history" share the optimism of their competitors in relation to the market prospects of electric vehicles. For example, Ford Motor Company at the industry event in Shanghai expressed caution in its desire to offer electric consumers electric cars and rechargeable hybrids to Chinese consumers, as Reuters notes.
Chinese authorities are now beginning to replace the benefits and subsidies for manufacturers of electric vehicles and hybrids on the requirements. For example, from next year, rules may come into force that require manufacturers present in the Chinese market to sell enough hybrids and electric vehicles - at least eight percent of the total sales. However, the automakers are expressing the hope that the requirements will be relaxed. Ford, while promising to offer Chinese customers an "electric" or hybrid version of each of its models for the local market produced in China by 2025, is not particularly optimistic about electric vehicles.
Market success in the segment of electric vehicles, according to Ford representatives , will be determined not by the speed of the output of the relevant models on the market, but by the timeliness of such a step. While the existing electric vehicles are not so convenient to operate and are quite expensive for a mass buyer. According to representatives of Ford, the charging time for 80% of the capacity of the traction battery should be reduced to half an hour, so that electric vehicles are easy to use. While automakers are very far from achieving these indicators.
Ford expresses the hope that the Chinese authorities will not adopt excessively harsh rules that can damage joint ventures operating in the country. But Honda from the scene of the Shanghai Motor Show admitted that by the end of next year it will offer its first electric vehicle in the Chinese market. Its development will have to be accelerated. Later, a gamma of rechargeable hybrids will appear. To these measures, Honda is forced to go to meet the tougher demands of the Chinese government for the environmentally friendly vehicles offered on the local market. Something similar is practiced by the US authorities, so accelerating the development of electric vehicles is on the agenda of many automakers of the world scale.