Dave Shemmans, CEO of Ricardo, says air pollution in China brings great opportunities for his company, which helps Chinese carmakers adopt low-emission technologies. Provided to China Daily

British firm keen to help Chinese set the pace on clean power

Dave Shemmans, CEO of the British engineering consultancy Ricardo Plc, sees great opportunities in helping China's rapidly growing automotive manufacturers adopt low-emission and sustainable technologies.

Since establishing a subsidiary in Shanghai eight years ago, Ricardo has worked with many Chinese carmakers to develop low-emissionpowertrains. Ricardo's China team now employs 60 engineers.

"Opportunities for low-emission technology in China are very large," Shemmans says. "We take the best technology from around the world and apply it to Chinese products.

"I'm keen for China to develop a world-class car industry as it helps with global competition and pushes forward technology."

Founded by Harry Ricardo in 1915, the company has provided engineering consultancy services in many industrial sectors globally, including transport, marine, defense and power generation.

In the Chinese market, it champions flexibility. "We are keen to find solutions for our clients and transfer our technology to them. We don't protect our technology," Shemmans says.

Since 2005 Ricardo has worked closely with SAIC Motor Corporation Limited, the Chinese carmaker that bought technology relating to the Rover 75 and Rover 25 after the British carmaker MG Rover collapsed that year.

To help SAIC fully integrate MG Rover's intellectual property into its own cars, Ricardo offered to provide a research and development center in the UK to train SAIC's engineers.

"We established the relationship by being very proactive," says Gary Tan, Asia president of Ricardo. "We heard SAIC was thinking of buying MG Rover, so we wrote a note to the chairman of SAIC explaining what we could do.

"The R&D center's purpose was to educate SAIC's engineers and help them improve their technical competency, so they can better support operations in China."

Located in the English midlands, the center employed about 200 engineers, many of whom were former MG Rover employees.

With Ricardo's help, SAIC launched its first vehicle under the new Roewe brand, the Roewe 750, which was produced based on technology acquired from the Rover 75 model.

Another Chinese car manufacturer Ricardo worked closely with was Chery Automobile Company Ltd, which it helped to develop a 50-unit fleet of low-emission hybrid vehicles, known as the "Olympics Green Messengers", to serve the Beijing 2008 Games.

Although foreign companies, such as Toyota, already produced hybrid vehicles in China, no Chinese company had the technology. Chery was the first.

"We presented some technical papers at a conference, and some representatives from Chery were among the audience. They later came to ask if we could help," Tan says.

Jointly developed by Ricardo and Chery, the hybrid vehicles used advanced powertrain control and energy management technologies to significantly save fuel.

To help Chery's engineers get to grips with the new technology, an engineering office was established at Ricardo's technical center in Cambridge, eastern England, where Chery's engineers worked alongside Ricardo's and selected component and sub-system suppliers.

The new technology was seen as a major breakthrough for Chery, but its plan to continue producing the model after the 2008 Olympics were canceled due to the lack of consumer demand and electrical charging facilities, Tan says.

China's electric-car market still faces the same challenges. Hybrid and electric vehicles are only produced on a small scale in China, and prices are high.

But Shemmans believes China has the potential to become a global leader in the hybrid and electric car market because the sector already has good understanding of the technology required and Chinese carmakers are generally good at keeping costs down.

Shemmans also sees an opportunity for Ricardo to help the Chinese government set goals to tackle carbon emission problems. Last year, the company acquired AEA Technology plc, an environmental consultancy that had intensive experience advising the British and other European governments. The deal led to the formation of a new subsidiary, Ricardo-AEA Ltd.

Ricardo-AEA is now helping the British government to produce its National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, which compiles estimates of emissions to the atmosphere from different sources.

The NAEI helps the British government check emissions levels and looks for ways to reduce them.

"Our strategy is to first measure the percentage of emissions coming from each of the different sources; for example, energy, transport and industry," Shemmans says. "Then we develop a plan of how to achieve the total energy needed nationally and meet emission targets.

"One way to maintain the total energy level while reducing emission is to change the mix of energy, and so encourage renewable energy like solar, wind and hydro, instead of fossil fuel sources."

Shemmans says he is keen to help the Chinese government with energy planning because he is concerned about the country's air pollution problems.

On Jan 12, the air-quality monitor operated by the US embassy in Beijing recorded levels of pollutants nearly 35 times in excess of the World Health Organization's recommended standard.

"I am worried that when industrial output increases, air pollution in China will become worse," Shemmans says.

Tan says the Chinese government is very open to advice from foreign companies. AEA has been advising the Chinese local government on several environmental projects.

It has been working with Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau to look at weakness in enforcing environmental standards, and in Shaanxi province it has been carrying out a study to identify legislation needed to support better waste-management practices.

Tan says this experience greatly helps Ricardo and its subsidiary to establish good credentials in the Chinese public sector, and may lead to opportunities to help the Chinese central government.

Shemmans is also optimistic, hoping Ricardo's China team will grow into a few hundred in the near future.

"I can sense from the Chinese government's announcement in response to the recent air pollution problem that it is encouraging companies to obtain the best technology from other parts of the world, and that creates opportunities for us."

Contact the writers at cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/08/2013 page18)