Fashion on shows, not yet fashion on road

The Guangzhou Auto Show enters into its fifth day and has been officially open to the public. Tens of thousands of car fans find that almost every car brand has put new energy models and fuel efficient models on display.

Nowadays, for car makers, if you attend a car show without rolling out one or two new energy models, you appear to be out of fashion. So, this is what we see at the Guangzhou Auto Show. Chevrolet puts its famous pure-electric Volt on the main stage. It's a multibillion dollar model, developed in the US Japanese brands are always strong in new energy.

Japanese carmaker Toyota displays a new energy car model at the Guangzhou Auto Show. [Photo/cntv.cn]

Toyota's Prius has sold 3.5 million units worldwide by October. But the Chinese market's contribution was very limited. Honda's hybrid CR-Z looks like a nice family car with character. And Nissan's concept EV MIXIM looks futuristic. Lexus occupies 80 percent of high-end hybrid car market globally. Its CT200 sells quite well in China. China's own BYD, as usual, displays its electric power system very explicitly. And even sports cars makers are paying lots of attention to fuel consumption. Guess how much fuel this latest Porsche 911 C4 burns?

Helmut Broeker, CEO of Porsche Motors, said, "Like 911, which you know is a high powered sports car. I mean this car has 350 to 400 horse power, and you may expect it to be high fuel consumption. But the average fuel consumption of 911 is under 10 liters per hundred kilometers. So we are working on very efficient systems and trying to reduce fuel consumptions."

"New energy cars, fuel efficient cars, all sound very fashionable. Now government policies are in place and huge money has been invested by car makers. But will consumers buy the bill and make the purchases. I talked to some consumers here at the Guangzhou Auto Show and their answers seem not very certain."

"I think if someone likes a specific car very much, he will not consider fuel efficiency." Guangzhou resident Mr Huang said.

"I am interested in new energy cars but will not buy it. I think most people feel comfortable with traditional combustion engine cars. Electric cars are new things and I may not feel totally relaxed driving it." Guangzhou resident Ms Qi said.

"I want to buy big engine cars, as big as I can afford because I'd like to drive big powerful cars in the future anyway." Guangzhou resident Ms Xiao said.

So it seems it will take a little longer for new energy cars become a fashion among drivers, from a fashion on car shows. But what did the Confucius say a journey of a thousand mile starts with a single step. We just hope that journey road doesn't get too bumpy ahead.