Tackling smog: hybrid and all-electric vehicles in China 2.0

China's government has set itself a target of five million emission-free cars on the country's roads by 2020 in order to improve the quality of life in the country's smog-afflicted big cities.

 

The government is currently investing the equivalent of ten billion euros, installing charging stations and enticing customers with gifts of money if they decide to buy an electric car.

However, the biggest incentive is the immediate allocation of a number plate. A rarity. In Shanghai, where a maximum of ten thousand number plates a year are auctioned for private car owners, this is worth the equivalent of up to 10,000 euros.

Getting rid of the smog in the cities is one of the reasons motivating China to promote hybrid and all-electric vehicles. The other is that the Chinese car industry was forced to recognize that it could not compete with the established Western makes and their rich tradition. But the pole position among suppliers of electric cars is still available.

And China wants to secure this position for itself. To this end, the country is investing in the development and production of electric vehicles and therefore needs experts in this area. But it takes good trainers to train these experts. That is why the TÜV Rheinland training centre for hybrid and all-electric vehicles opened its doors in Shanghai in 2015. It is here that the trainers for hybrid and all-electric vehicle technology are now being trained.

This has been made possible by educational exchanges between Germany and China: to make the training centre a reality, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), TÜV Rheinland Akademie GmbH and Lucas-Nuelle GmbH are working together as partners.

As part of this process, Lucas-Nuelle has adapted its CarTrain hybrid and all-electric vehicle training course for the Chinese market while TÜV Rheinland Akademie is providing training premises and material in Shanghai and IFAM is training the future trainers.

More information

For more information about the new training centre in Shanghai, go to the joint website set up by the project partners:

Source: lucas-nuelle.com (homepage of the training provider Lucas-Nuelle), revised by iMOVE, August 2016