Wan Gang is widely credited with leading China’s electric car strategy many years ago.
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HEFEI, China — The man leading China’s electric car strategy said Wednesday that Chinese investment in Europe’s electric car industry could be a path forward for both sides amid trade tensions.
‘I believe the governments [of China and the European Union] are now considering how to combine investment with commodity trading through negotiations,” said Wan Gang, now chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology.
Wan spoke via an official English translation during a livestream of a panel at the World Economic Forum’s ‘Summer Davos’ meeting in Dalian, China. Spokespeople for the European Commission were not immediately available when contacted by CNBC.
As for the details, China’s Foreign Ministry referred CNBC to the “responsible” Chinese authorities, according to a CNBC translation from Chinese. The ministry said China and the EU are each other’s most important trade and investment partners, and that China hoped the EU would keep its trade and investment markets open.
China’s Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours on Thursday. The Commerce Ministry spokesperson told reporters earlier in the day that the Chinese and European working groups remain in close consultation.
The Commerce Department had said this was the case over the weekend launching consultations with the EU over the bloc’s investigation into the role of subsidies in Chinese electric cars. The EU said earlier this month it would increase tariffs on imports of the vehicles.
“Even if we do not export a large number of electric vehicles, perhaps the Chinese companies can try to invest in Europe,” Wan said, noting that such financing could create local jobs.
Wan became China’s Minister of Science and Technology around 2007 and is known for spearheading the country’s early development in electric cars.
He said that when China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, he had already worked in Germany for about 15 years, including at Audi – and had experienced several periods of oil price volatility.
Wan added that 2001 was also the year the Chinese government set a goal of developing a “moderately prosperous society,” which would mean that every family would soon have their own car.
But fuel-powered vehicles would put pressure on Beijing to ensure a stable gas supply for consumers while increasing pollution, Wan estimated at the time.
He claimed that when developing its electric car strategy, China was not thinking about competing with anyone, but rather thinking about its own survival.
The US has also raised tariffs on imports of Chinese electric cars this year, amid mounting criticism of how Beijing’s policies unduly favor domestic players over foreign companies.
Wan said China asked him to return from Germany and research electric cars more than 20 years ago. He said Chinese cities suffered from extreme air pollution problems around 2010, spurring a local effort to go electric, starting with buses and taxis.
This year, new energy vehicles (a category that also includes battery and hybrid cars) have reached more than a third of new passenger cars sold in China, according to data from the local passenger association.
However, Wan said electric car makers still need to do more to reduce drivers’ range anxiety – by enabling vehicles to know when and where to charge automatically – and improve road safety by through driver assistance technology.
He said the development of electric cars was an “irreversible trend” for the world, noting that “we must be determined to move forward despite the vicissitudes.”