Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co. and Changan Automobile Group Co. aim to poach the talent nurtured by Japan's top automakers. Making less-polluting cars is key to meeting a government goal of boosting exports of vehicles and parts to $85 billion by 2015 and the equivalent of 10 percent of the global auto trade by 2020.

"Emissions regulations are especially tough in Europe," said Wang Wenjun, who heads a Tokyo recruiting and research center for Jianghuai Auto, the nation's biggest exporter of light trucks. "What we really need is people to help us with environmental technologies."

Hiromasa Torii was one of those people. Torii, a 65-year- old retired Japanese auto engineer, worked in eastern China's Anhui province for three years through late 2009. He helped Chinese engineers select materials and experiment with different constructions to lighten vehicle weight and was paid as much as a million yen ($10,700) a month for his expertise.

"Until four or five years ago, Chinese carmakers were just known for their ability to copy foreign brands' designs, but things have changed," Torii said in a phone interview. "These days, they want the most advanced technology."

Recruiting

Since Jianghuai Auto began courting Japanese engineers in 2006, "a few dozen" have been sent to China, said Wang. While Jianghuai Auto also employs Italians and Germans at its headquarters, about 80 percent of its foreign engineers are Japanese, he said.

Changan has a research center in Yokohama and held two recruiting rounds in Japan last year, said Zhang Baojun, a company spokesman. The carmaker has seven Japanese engineers working in China, he said.

Changan, based in Chongqing, central China, also plans to open centers in the U.K. and Germany "soon," Zhang said.

"If they want to improve the exterior design, they go to the Italians," said Akira Ami, president of Global Business Support Marketing, a consulting company that has been sending Japanese engineers to China since 2002. "But for the guts of the car, they are looking to the Japanese."

Emissions

The European Union has a target of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 20 percent by the end of this decade from 1990 levels and is phasing in caps on carbon dioxide from cars from 2012. California will require 3 percent of vehicles sold over a three- year period starting with 2012 models to be so-called zero- emission vehicles.

"I keep getting asked if I know anybody who's an expert on rare metals," said Kiyoshi Kondo, 73, a former engineer at truckmaker Isuzu Motor Ltd. who advised Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. until 2008. Rare metals are used in catalytic converters that help turn exhaust into less polluting compounds.

The trend mirrors growing investment in developing less polluting vehicles. Chongqing Changan is building a plant in Chongqing that will make as many as 600,000 low-emission and hybrid cars from 2012, according to the carmaker.

BYD Co., the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, began selling its F3DM plug-in hybrid car to individual customers in the city of Shenzhen on March 29 and has said it will introduce electric cars in the U.S. this year and in Europe next year.

Improved Quality

"The quality of cars made by Chinese makers has vastly improved," Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said at the Beijing Auto Show last week. "The speed of that progress is very fast."

Competition for domestic sales of hybrids and electric vehicles may also heat up as China's government is expected to announce subsidies for less-polluting cars this year.

General Motors Co. said April 12 it plans to sell its Volt plug-in car in China next year, and Toyota on the same day said it started selling a hybrid version of the Camry sedan in the country.

Chinese carmakers' efforts to learn from Japanese engineers have caused the government to express concern about leakage of knowledge, said Watanabe of the Japan-China Automotive Association.

The engineers are often asked to help reverse-engineer Japanese cars to make it easier to copy their designs, said Ami, the consultant. Others have been asked to hand over technology secrets of their former employees, he said.

Kondo, the former Isuzu engineer, said he had no qualms about advising Chinese carmakers.

"One day, they are going to catch up with us," he said. "There's no point in me standing in their way."

He compared the situation to his own experience 40 years ago, when he traveled to Detroit to learn the latest techniques in vehicle testing from Ford Motor Co., taking the knowledge back to Japan.

"China now is like Japan 30 to 40 years ago," he said. "If my experience can be applied, I'd like to help out."