HEVs are sold well in the world markets. However, it seems that Chinese consumers show no interest in them. Taking Toyota's Prius with the largest sales as an example, its production and sales in China were only 168 units and 80 units separately in the first quarter of 2008, and about 300 units in 2007 according to the statistics of China Association of Automotive Manufacturers. Compared with Prius sales of nearly 200,000 vehicles in the world market, HEVs have seemingly not acclimatized themselves to China. Actually, we believe that price is the most important factor to restrict HEV sales in China. At present, Prius is sold in China at a price of about CNY280,000, but it is only US$215.000 (less than CNY150,000) in the U.S. Additionally, Prius buyers in the U.S. can enjoy various kinds of allowances valued at over US$2,000. In May 2008, HEV prices in the U.S. rose successively in tandem with jumps in oil prices and price of Prius, Camry and Lexus increased by US$400, US$100 and US$300 respectively in May. Furthermore, maintenance cost of HEVs is high. The cost of power train of HEVs is over 30% of the total and the follow-up maintenance cost is not low. Although the government advocates the use of HEVs and Toyota promotes the advantage of HEVs, it is also an issue to persuade people to purchase HEVs.

Although the Chinese consumers have showed little interest in purchasing HEVs, China auto manufacturers have also launched their own plans to produce HEVs successively. China HEV market is in the development stage, but if China allows oil prices to be decided by market, and adopts the policy to offer subsidy to HEV producers, which will push down selling prices of HEVs, then China HEV producers will have a harvest.