Hybrid cars face significant challenges
真希望這種比較environmentally-friendly的車車快點在市面上有賣…. 不過要那個變便宜還得等很久吧.
(from ninemsn.com.au)
Hybrid cars face significant challenges
19:40 AEST Wed Aug 31 2005
Every car maker will be producing hybrid models within a decade, but the new breed of vehicle faces significant challenges, the head of German prestige car group BMW says.
Hybrid vehicles, powered by a combination of petrol and hydrogen, are seen by many as the solution to the problem of dwindling oil supplies.
BMW chief executive officer Helmut Panke said every car manufacturer in the world would be producing at least one hybrid model within the next five to eight years.
“However, we will have to wait until around 2020 before we have 10 to 15 per cent of the vehicles operated by hydrogen,” he told journalists.
But Mr Panke cautioned that significant challenges lay ahead for bi-powered vehicles.
“The big question is how do we get the technological issues of storage resolved, and how do we get the infrastructure for the fuel stations done,” he said.
Hybrid vehicles were also unsuitable for motorists in rural areas and were limited to a niche application for urban drivers, Mr Panke said.
BMW is planning to introduce a hydrogen-fuelled car to its 7 Series within the current generation of vehicles.
The entry of Chinese car manufacturers into the international market would have a domino effect, similar to the emergence of their Korean counterparts years ago, said Mr Panke, who is in Australia to attend the Forbes Global CEO conference.
“It will influence the positioning of the competition in Korea and Japan,” he said.
“The Koreans attacked the Japanese (market position), the Japanese then attacked the European and Americans, now the Chinese will attack the Korean position.”
Chinese car manufacturers such as Jili were already “dipping a toe in the international waters”, he said.
Mr Panke said BMW would continue to expand its range of models to cater for increasingly choosy consumers.
“We are developing more and more models to address the different segments,” he said.
“You can’t just say to a customer here is a limited number of products. It might not really be what you want but this is what you get.”
BMW has already expanded its line-up from one brand and three model lines in the early 1990s to three brands and 10 model lines and is planning to launch two additional model lines by 2008.
BMW currently has around 1.8 per cent share of the global market.
No comments yet.