A year of hope & progress

China Daily | Updated: 2016-01-04 07:43

Editor's note: After interviewing senior executives of Chinese and international automakers as well as industry experts in 2015, China Daily reporters selected the 10 most interesting quotes.

"I think we have been a little bit too impatient in the Chinese market. When I say us, I mean everybody. I mean Tesla, I mean the public, and I mean the Chinese press."

Ricardo Reyes, Tesla's vice-president of global communications, when Chinese reporters asked about the US electric carmaker's sales, in April

"Sometimes it happens that you may have quality questions. The important thing is to recognize this as early as possible and react in the right way to serve the customers."

Jochem Heizmann, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group China after the German automaker's emissions scandal, in October

"Carmaking involves about 2,000 to 2,500 steps. Most Chinese companies go about 800 to 1,000 steps ... but we at Qoros follow the 2,500-step process. We don't take shortcuts. We produce good cars. Even some Western companies take shortcuts."

Phil Murtaugh, Qoros CEO talking about the quality of Qoros' cars, in November

"I want to teach you an English phrase, which is 'you cannot teach an old dog new tricks'. We are old, 102 years old ... it is better to work with young dogs, in order to teach us how to accept new ideas, new technologies."

Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin talking about the company's cooperation with Chinese Internet firm Letv, in December

"We did not anticipate sales would fall into such a situation. Our estimated 7-percent growth year-on-year was based on the opinions of major carmakers in the country."

Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers after the organization cut its estimated growth rate to 3 percent in July

"The China Dream needs Chinese car brands. There are about 1.5 million government officials who are the deputy head of a section or above, according to our calculation. If all of them buy Chinese-branded cars, the market will be immeasurable."

Li Chunrong, general manager of Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle Co, talking about developing Chinese car brands, in September.

"A car without a steering wheel will continue being in science fiction but the auto pilot function for certain road conditions is definitely realistic."

Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, talking about Volvo Cars' tests of its auto pilot functions in April at Auto Shanghai 2015

"Some regulatory policies are issued by ministries, without approval from the State Council. They are illegitimate."

Fu Yuwu, director of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, in August in comments on the government administration of the industry

"China has the best regulation and strongest push to support NEV policy in the world. I think China has the vision and the potential to become the biggest NEV market in the world because we have more bigger cities in this country than anywhere else. NEVs are perfectly suited for inner-city traffic, but not so much for long distances."

Hubertus Troska, member of the board of management of Daimler AG responsible for Greater China

"Our new energy vehicle sales will exceed 1 million units by 2020, accounting for more than 90 percent of Geely's total volume. Among them, hybrid cars will take 65 percent and all electric cars 35 percent."

An Conghui, president of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, in his announcement of the "Blue Geely" strategy in November ahead of Auto Guangzhou 2015