China's carmakers are embracing next-generation cleaner-car technology, motivated more by profit and pragmatism than any special love for the planet. Rising manufacturers like Chery Automobile and Geely are developing or launching hybrid, electric and other alternative-energy vehicles, betting that China can follow its successes in mobile phones and digital technology by becoming a leader in greener cars. At Auto China, China's largest motor show, Geely yesterday showed an electric car with the slogan "I'm going green" emblazoned on the side, which it said it planned to introduce next year. Shanghai Automotive, or SAIC, China's largest domestic carmaker, said it would be producing more than 10,000 hybrid cars a year by 2010, including those made by its joint venture partners, General Motors and Volkswagen. Chery premiered a planned hybrid that it will pilot at the Olympic games. Their belief - and that of their supporters in government - is that China is positioned to vault past existing automotive models into the new technologies, which require regulators' support in such areas as tax policy and investment in new technologies like hydrogen fuel cells. Given China's size and ability to set standards, the argument goes, they might then dominate the next generation of carmaking as well as key supplier industries such as lithium-ion batteries. "Chinese manufacturers all want the next big opportunity to leapfrog their competitors," says Jian Sun, a partner with AT Kearney in Shanghai. China is due to eclipse the US as the world's largest car market in about a decade but this is contributing to heavy pollution and urban congestion. However, the local industry's push into greener cars appears to be motivated mostly by China's preoccupation with energy security and desire to build a world-class auto industry. "China is a country that is short of energy," Jin Yibo, Chery's assistant general manager, told the FT. "Chery believes this is the future trend of the Chinese automobile industry." Carmakers also need to raise their game as weak demand in the US and Europe makes China's burgeoning market a central competitive arena for the global industry. "Chinese carmakers are trying to move up the value chain and the brand-positioning chain," says Michael Dunne, of JD Power, a consultancy. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008