China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC) built its own homegrown sedan, the SH760, until the early 1980s. Now the automaker is about to showcase its own hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle at the upcoming Shanghai Auto Show. It will then hurtle the company into the industry's leading edge.
SAIC budged over to assembly the Volkswagen Santana in the 1980s and later hooked a second joint venture with General Motors Co. which now builds and releases a million vehicles in China annually. SAIC’s joint ventures include Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive, Shanghai General Motors Corporation and SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile.
SAIC has engaged to milk its two overseas partners for technology. The Chinese automaker plans to invest around a sturdy $130 million to develop so-called “Clean tech” vehicles, riding on the clean and green automotive bandwagon schemes.
China’s government should work on offering incentives and infrastructure directives for its automakers so hydrogen vehicles will be blasting off in their domestic market much sooner than its Western counterparts. The company also mapped out its expended efforts on R&D to speed up commercialization of fuel-cell vehicles and its performance parts in the market. It also prepares for joint production of some 500 Touran gas-electric hybrids next year, perhaps in collaboration with Volkswagen.