Chinese electric car exports scare European rivals

The eastern country is positioned as the world benchmark in the production and export of electric vehicles, compared to European brands with increasingly less prominence in their territory. Chinese EV manufacturers are becoming more unreachable than ever. A good example of this is that the total number of passenger car exports from China to the global market has increased by 211% in the last two years, as specified by Automotive News Europe. These figures are putting in difficult situation the historical manufacturers who do nothing but look at the East with some suspicion.

In addition, Chinese brands are constantly increasing their market share in their home country, thus making tough competition from other international manufacturers, especially in the last three years. Among the brands that most captivate the Asian customer is BYD, which has made significant progress thanks to its competitive prices and battery technology. Logically, this has been to the detriment of some foreign companies that have seen their participation drop to 43% throughout 2023 (previously it stood at 67%).

In the main international markets outside of China, they are also reaching significant levels of market share, especially in Europe, where they are becoming another alternative within the sector thanks to aesthetically well-crafted vehicles and starting prices, generally much more affordable. For reference, the export share of SAIC Motors (which owns MG) reached 33% in 2022.

With these figures, China is on track to overtake Germany and Japan to become the world’s largest vehicle exporter. As we have already mentioned, in the last two years they have increased their numbers by 211%. In 2022 alone, they thus reached a total of 3.11 million exports.

With these figures, it is difficult not to see that China is positioning itself as the ‘mirror to look at’ the rest of the ‘traditional’ brands. In particular, the oriental models tend to boast technology, software, and digitization, but, above all, a very affordable production cost thanks to cheaper labor than in other regions of the planet.

BYD SEAL

In terms of technology, the software in Chinese models plays a fundamental role, especially in the area of ​​information and entertainment, thus giving its differential note compared to other competitors in the market. As an example, Geely recently acquired the company Meizu, known for its smartphones and specialized devices. With this, they have developed a new operating system (Flyme Auto OS) with which to compete with the Harmony OS that Huawei already sports in China.

On the other hand, Chinese manufacturers have also made significant efforts to establish a supply chain for batteries and other critical materials. Let us remember that companies as powerful in this regard as CATL or BYD settle in the country, and supply their components to brands of the Geely Group, SAIC, or Great Wall Motors, among others. At the same time, inter-brand partnerships with historic European manufacturers are also being made, thus putting the Made in China stamp on hitherto little-imagined items.

However, despite everything, Chinese manufacturers still have a lot of work to do, especially to be able to show themselves as a clear alternative to already established manufacturers; not only in terms of price but also as reliable and highly durable vehicles. At the moment, in the latest sales data from Spain, the MG4 (Chinese production model) has been in third place, only behind Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.

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