All roads lead to China for green cars

THE car industry is stripping back its approach at the Paris Motor Show after two years of running on empty thanks to the global financial crisis.

THE car industry is stripping back its approach at the Paris Motor Show after two years of running on empty thanks to the global financial crisis.

The new models unveiled at the world's most-visited car show leave room in the front seat for three themes: clean, cheap and China. Hybrids and other fuel-efficient lower-emission vehicles are the main concern for executives at the show, while China has pulled ahead of the US as the biggest car market. "And they're not going to get off that title any time soon," said market analyst Rebecca Lindland, of IHS Automotive.

BMW's sales and marketing chief, Ian Robertson, said the German company expected to top its forecast to sell 120,000 cars in China this year. And Peugeot will make a third of its new 508 sedans in China, with targeted sales in its first year of 200,000, said PSA Peugeot-Citroen chief executive Philippe Varin. Ferrari sold 250 models in China and aims to increase sales to 500, chairman Luca Cordero de Montezemolo said.

"In China, we are all growing in high double-digits - in our case triple-digits," said Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche.

The two-week event brings together 306 companies from 20 nations. One novelty at the Paris show, the first since 2008, is the "micro-car" - two-seater city vehicles popular in Asia.

Peugeot's BB1 concept, Nissan's Land Glider and the Renault Twizy are among these half-car/half-motorcycle contraptions.

About one-third of the 100 or so new models presented in Paris this year are hybrids or electrics. Even Ferrari has refined its California model to cut carbon emissions by 10 per cent.

AP