China softens new energy vehicle requirements through 2020 – China’s latest business and technology news

When China announced on September 10 that it was setting ambitious goals to electrify its car market, likely in a matter of a few decades, some automakers pushed back.

But even before that, automakers were aghast at draft requirements, first reported at the end of April, that China “would require as much as 8 percent of [all car] sales in China to be electric vehicles as early as next year.”

Now Bloomberg says that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has delayed this rule for a year, and announced a more comprehensive cap-and-trade system to go into effect in 2019. The system will require automakers who manufacture or import more than 30,000 vehicles a year in China to achieve a “new-energy vehicle score” (新能源汽车积分比例 xīn néngyuán qìchē jīfēn bǐlì) of at least 10 percent by 2019, and 12 percent by 2020. A Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst said that 12 percent in this scoring system translates to “about 4 percent to 5 percent of actual vehicle sales” — much less than the 8 percent target raised earlier this year.

In other auto news:

• JD Power’s latest survey of vehicle quality revealed that Chinese automakers have almost closed the gap in quality with foreign automakers, the FT reports (paywall). Michael Dunne, author of a book on General Motors in China and a piece on The China Project about the Chinese carmaker Geely, told the FT that this was “the beginning of the end of Detroit in China.”
• CNBC has two reports on how Tesla and Japanese automakers are set to compete in the Chinese electric vehicle market.
• Sixth Tone says that “Batteries from green cars could swamp China’s recycling industry.”

• Financial Times special report on higher education
  Educating the next Chinese business leaders / FT (paywall)
  A series of 11 articles on M.B.A. programs in China, covering topics such as the sex discrimination and stereotypes that women face, the relative salary outcomes for 26 schools in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the experience of foreigners at Chinese business schools, and much more.
  See also: Chinese names rise on Fortune’s list of powerful businesswomen / Caixin
• European railway competition with China
  Siemens and Alstom form European train giant to beat Chinese competition / NYT (paywall)
• Environment
  China’s Shandong tightens screw on smog-prone cities / Reuters
  Milled down: China steelmakers slash orders as Beijing war on winter smog nears / Reuters
  China plans national parks network to fend off environmental threats / Caixin
• Economic development
  China’s reforms allowing villagers to rent out land have boosted incomes / Bloomberg
  China tries to boost support for small businesses through taxes, loans / SCMP
• Mobile payments
  Alipay finds seat in Starbucks, 10 months after WeChat pay / Caixin