Hoping to kick-start sales of its hybrid Roewe 750 sedans, SAIC Motor on Tuesday launched a five-day price-cutting campaign that briefly makes the automaker’s first mass-produced green car cheaper than its hot-selling gasoline version.
Chen Zhexin, executive vice president of SAIC, said consumers across the nation who purchase the cars during the weeklong Shanghai industry fair, Nov 1-5, would be eligible for subsidies to be paid by the automaker.
“We need fleet buyers, and we want to promote green cars to consumers as well. We are now offering 32,000 yuan ($5,035)subsidies to anyone who buys hybrid Roewe during Nov 1-5,” Chen told reporters on the sidelines of the industry fair.
The subsidy would lower the price of the hybrids, normally 236,800 yuan ($37,260), to 204,800 yuan ($32,200). Although still pricey, they would be cheaper than the company’s gasoline-powered model, which fetches 224,800 yuan ($35,370) and consumes roughly 20 percent more fuel.
SAIC aims to sell 500 of the hybrid units this year, rising to 3,000 units in 2012, Chen said. It has signed up at least two fleet buyers in less than two weeks since the car arrived in showrooms, he said.
Fleet buyers are eligible for government subsidies for the hybrid sedan, but individual consumers are not.
To alley consumers’ concern for the reliability of hybrid cars, which have yet to take off in China, SAIC is also offering 80,000-kilometre warranties for the car and 5-year free swap for the battery system, Chen said.
SAIC, eyeing one-fifth of the country’s clean car market, is investing more than 12 billion yuan to develop hybrid, electric and fuel-cell models through 2015.
More green cars are in the pipeline, with plug-in hybrid Roewe 550 and an electric car, E50, scheduled to hit the showrooms late next year.
Its two partners, General Motors and Volkswagen AG, are also joining the green car race in the world’s largest auto market.
GM and SAIC has agreed to develop and build electric vehicles in China, making them eligible for government subsidies, something GM’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid does not qualify for since it is not locally made.
Volkswagen’s car venture with SAIC has also gained regulatory approval to make an EV, Tantus.
