Chinese truck maker Beiqi Foton Motor Co. has joined the race to build electric vehicles. Foton plans to start selling a battery-electric minivan in Beijing in late 2009 or early 2010. A full charge will take four to five hours and power the vehicle for 100 to 150 kilometers. The lithium ion batteries used in the minivan will be sourced from a domestic battery supplier.

The electric vehicle will be priced around 120,000 yuan ($17,555), twice as much as gasoline version (60,000 yuan). The traditional driven version was launched in 2008, the electric Midi will have a revolutionary and subversive design. Robin Wu, vice president in charge of engineering research at Foton accents, that unless the gasoline price exceeds 10 yuan per liter ($5.54 per gallon), it will be hard for electric cars to be price competitive on the market. Foton will source components from outside suppliers, but the core technology of the control system will be developed by itself, he adds.

In 2009, the company plans to hire 43 engineering experts from overseas, especially those well versed in hybrid and battery controller development. Foton's engineering research institute now employs about 900 engineers, and 200 of them are now focusing on new energy vehicle development. Zhao says Foton will develop new energy vehicles for different market segments ranging from cars and buses to trucks. With a total investment of 5 billion yuan ($731 million), Foton is now building a new energy vehicle manufacturing base capable of building 5,000 new energy buses and 400,000 clean diesel engines a year.

Foton sold a total of 409,063 vehicles in 2008. Of that figure, 3,645 were passenger vehicles including its MP-X and Midi minivans and Legend SUVs. Foton targets sales I said of 420,700 vehicles in 2009.

Source: Auto News China

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