China’s anti-pollution drive makes it a good place for clean-energy firms

“Environmental pollution has become a major problem, which is nature’s red-light warning.” Those green-tinged words do not come from an activist. Rather, they come from China’s leaders, who gathered this week in Beijing for a big annual meeting. On March 5th Li Keqiang, the prime minister, vowed to declare war on pollution.

“环境污染已成为重大问题，是大自然向我们亮起的红灯。”这些带着环保意味的话语不是出自环保人士之口，而是源于本周齐聚北京参加两会的中国领导人。3月5日总理李克强宣誓坚决向环保宣战。

The timing could not have been better, then, for the launch of a firm devoted to the manufacture of greener engines. The same day EcoMotors, a startup backed by Bill Gates and Khosla Ventures (supported by Vinod Khosla, a Californian venture capitalist), unveiled its joint venture with a division of China FAW Group, a local carmaker. The Chinese partner vowed to spend more than $200m on a factory in Shanxi, a northern province, that will produce 100,000 of the new engines a year.

要建立致力于生产更清洁发动机的公司，这一时机是再好不过的。就在当天，由比尔.盖茨和科拉斯风险投资公司（Khosla Ventures，由加利福尼亚风险投资者Vinod Khosla投资）投资的起步公司EcoMotors宣布与中国本地汽车制造商——一汽集团的一个分支合并，中国方面承诺将在山西（中国北部省份）一工厂投入2亿多美金，每年将生产10万台新型发动机。

The venture’s “OPOC” two-stroke engine, a novel twist on a century-old idea, consists of a pair of cylinders, each containing two opposing pistons. Its backers claim its fuel-efficiency will be up to 45% better than the four-stroke engines commonly used in cars. The technology was developed with financial help from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the Pentagon with a record of promoting breakthroughs (robot legs and self-driving cars are two others).

该合资公司的“OPOC”二冲程发动机对一个世纪以来的设计理念做了一点新的改变。这种发动机有一对气缸，各个气缸有两个对冲的活塞。支持者称其节油效率能达到45%,比现在普遍用于汽车的四冲程发动机更高效。这项技术得到了美国国防先进技术研究计划局的经济帮助，该局是国防部的一个分支，素以促进技术突破著称（机器人腿和自动驾驶汽车就是两个例子）。

The engine can run on a variety of fuels. The plan is first to make diesel engines for use in lorries, and only later to consider petrol versions for cars. However, local boosters in Shanxi also want future configurations to burn methanol, which can be made from abundant local coal supplies.

这种发动机可以燃烧多种燃料。计划是先制造用于卡车的柴油发动机，之后再考虑用于汽车的汽油发动机。不过山西本地的支持者希望未来的发动机能燃烧甲醇，甲醇可以从当地丰富的煤原料中获取。

Another noteworthy aspect of this deal, argues Andrew Chung of Khosla Ventures, is that it suggests the best way for inventive energy startups to achieve scale: make a big push in China. Despite the downturn in the solar business there, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research firm, estimates that the clean-technology market in China exceeded $60 billion last year, whereas America’s was less than $50 billion. 

科拉斯风险投资公司的Andrew Chung指出了协议另一个引人注目的方面：刚起步的创新能源公司要扩大规模的最好办法就是在中国市场更进一步。尽管中国市场的太阳能生意不如从前，研究公司彭博新能源财经估计，相比价值低于500亿美元的美国清洁能源市场，中国市场去年超过了600亿美元。

Commercialising new technologies is not easy in rich countries, says Amit Soman, the president of EcoMotors, since slow growth and legacy assets make incumbent manufacturers reluctant to take a punt on unproven new kit. But in China his firm has already reached two non-exclusive deals. In one of these, EcoMotors signed a $200m licensing agreement last April to let Zhongding Power make a version of its engines for diesel generators.

EcoMotors总裁Amit Soman说，要在发达国家将新技术商业化并不容易，缓慢的经济增长和遗留财产使运营中的制造商不愿意对未经试验的新设备下赌注。但在中国，EcoMotors公司已经达成了两项非专属的协议。其中一项协定于去年4月签署，中鼎动力投资2亿美元，获得制造EcoMotors设计的柴油发动机的许可。

“The innovation cycle is being completed in China and other emerging economies, not America,” says Mr Chung. Maybe so, but there are two caveats. The first is that Chinese firms will not pay much for intellectual property, and will copy it as soon they figure out how. The second, observes Jonathan Woetzel of McKinsey, a consulting firm, is that only technology firms that “fit conveniently into the Chinese ecosystem”, to the benefit of local companies, will be allowed to prosper.

Chung说：“创新循环是在中国和其他新兴经济体完成的，而不是在美国。”事实也许如此，但有两点要注意。一是中国公司不会为知识产权支付大量金额，一旦领会设计内容就会进行抄袭。第二正如咨询公司麦肯锡的Jonathan Woetzel指出的一样，只有“顺利融入中国生态系统”，有益于当地公司的科技公司才能繁荣发展。

Consider the much-trumpeted recent arrival of Tesla Motors in China. The American electric-car firm unarguably has cutting-edge clean technology, but its business model of importing all its vehicles does not enrich powerful Chinese firms or transfer intellectual property to local joint ventures. So the subsidies and tax breaks lavished by China’s central and local governments on buyers of even the most wretched “new energy vehicles” made there will not be offered to purchasers of Tesla’s gorgeous green machines. 

想想特斯拉汽车就明白了。最近特拉斯汽车进入中国市场，声势浩大。无疑这家美国电动汽车公司拥有最尖端的清洁科技，但其引进所有交通工具的商业模式既没有帮助强大的中国公司致富，也没有把知识产权转入当地合资企业。虽然中国的“新能源汽车”大多质量很差，中央和地方政府仍为其买主提供了大量的补贴和减税优惠，但顾客购买特拉斯旗下美观且环保的汽车却不可能获得这些优惠。