Soupjoe5 OP t1_itzcpxr wrote on October 27, 2022 at 12:41 PM

Reply to comment by Soupjoe5 in Chinese electric carmakers take on Europe by Soupjoe5

He also forecasts that traditional carmakers will limit electric sales before 2025, when CO₂ targets in the region tighten, in order to eke out as many higher margin petrol or diesel sales as possible.

This, he said, presents an opportunity for the Chinese brands.

Already, with little fanfare, China’s carmakers have built a toehold in the European market.

One in 20 electric vehicles sold in the region in the first six months of 2022 were Chinese owned brands, led by SAIC’s MG, and Polestar, backed by Geely.

But this is just the start.

BYD will begin selling its three new models before the end of the year, premium brand Nio has recently announced its plans to sell outside European EV outlier Norway, and Aiways, a mass-market brand backed by Jiangling Motors, claims to have orders for 10,000 vehicles.

Transport and Environment, a green lobby group, expects the Chinese share of Europe’s fast-growing battery car market to grow to one in six cars by the middle of the decade.

“If Europe wants to maintain the competitiveness of its car industry, the EU must introduce a strong industrial policy of its own to match the Chinese and Americans’ muscular support for EVs,” said Julia Poliscanova, director at the agency.

A wave of factories are likely to follow sales, as was the case with both the Japanese and then Koreans, as they establish production closer to their customers.

BYD is already in talks with several countries, including the UK, according to two people, about setting up a factory making both batteries and vehicles. The company will decide how many plants it needs based on its sales, Shu said, while declining to comment on its possible locations.

Nio, which launched in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands and will enter the UK next year, expects to build a site once it passes 200,000 sales, said Li.

Soupjoe5 OP t1_itzcqg0 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 12:41 PM

Great Wall is preparing to build the next version of the electric Mini through a joint venture with BMW in China. The company is also looking to secure a European site in time.

Henrik Fisker, a former BMW and Aston Martin executive who runs the start-up electric vehicle company Fisker, said eventually the quality of the products will win over new customers.

“When I look at these Chinese cars, I actually don’t see any real price advantages,” he said, while sitting in the new Fisker Ocean manufactured by Magna Steyr in Austria.

“Quite frankly, I think, yeah, some of them are pretty nice electric cars.”

European carmakers face rough road in China

China’s car industry leads the world in sales of electric vehicles, leaving foreign companies at risk of being left behind.

“Among the top 15 EV producers in China, only four can be considered to have foreign ownership,” according to a new report by Berlin-based think-tank Merics. “In 2021, BMW and Mercedes-Benz had market shares of less than 0.3 per cent in China’s EV market, having sold fewer than 10,000 units each in a market of 3.3mn units.”

Volkswagen fared better but still had only a 3.7 per cent share of the EV market, compared with 11.3 per cent of the overall market, it added.

The German carmakers have deepened their investment in China to try to catch up with local rivals. In June this year, BMW opened its fourth factory in the country, while Audi’s new joint venture with FAW broke ground on a plant in Changchun, a city in the north-east, this year.

China is also one of the largest profit pools for the German car groups, which makes them reluctant to comment publicly on the nation.

Only Carlos Tavares, the Stellantis boss whose brands include Germany’s Opel, has warned about the need to cut reliance on China as a market. His company, which has struggled there, recently pulled out of its Jeep factory in China, and is considering closing its Peugeot and Citroën plants in the country as well, he told an audience at the Paris Motor Show last week.