China's NEV market development and its capability of enabling premium NEV: Referencing from the NEV market performance of BMW and Mercedes in China

For decades, China has long been striving for localized auto industry. Taking the opportunity of industrial transformation, China not only aims to overtake the mass auto industry, but also to shift into fast lane in developing indigenous premium(1)new energy vehicles (NEV). Premium auto industry represents the peak of market & technical trends. To spur China's premium NEV development, it is essential to evaluate the platform of enabling premium NEV development in China by studying German premium NEV activities in this market. This paper reviews China's NEV market and German premium automakers via a hexagonal framework: policy, market, technologies, charging, electricity efficiencies comparison and a case study of premium NEV activity heat map in Beijing. German NEV automakers are less active based on disadvantages over policy-supported Chinese players. In order to encourage market oriented NEV industrial development, 'policy and market integration' is essential: subsidy policies should be in place to promote technical innovations, while market should be more inclusive for foreign players to enable healthy market competitions.