China accelerates its world dominance in electric vehicle manufacturing

Government support for electric vehicles, coupled with growing consumer interest, has allowed Chinese companies to dominate the domestic market, the world’s largest automotive sector.

The Shanghai Motor Show, which is held every two years and ends on April 27, reveals that Chinese brands can “rival all the traditional automakers on every level, performance, quality, comfort, there’s nothing they can’t do,” points out Elliot Richards, an electric car expert.

“The show marks the end of the internal combustion engine and the beginning of the electric vehicle era,” he stressed.

Electric car companies are conscious that they are beginning to catch up with their fossil fuel precursors.

“We consider high-end fuel vehicles as our main competitors,” William Li, general manager of Nio, the “Chinese Tesla,” told AFP.

Sales of electric and hybrid vehicles are set to double by 2022 and account for more than a quarter of vehicles sold, an unprecedented level, the Chinese Passenger Car Association (CPCA) points out.

Despite the global slowdown in the automotive sector, electric vehicles will account for more than 40 percent of the market share in China this year, Li estimates.

At the Shanghai Motor Show, dozens of new models are on display from new and older manufacturers.

“The future is here, now,” Mike Johnstone, top executive of British luxury brand Lotus, told AFP.

CHINESE BRANDS AS ROLE MODELS

China has devoted significant efforts to boosting this industry. “They gave up on developing combustion engines” because they couldn’t rival the rest of the world, Richards analyzes.

“So they thought, ‘With electric vehicles, we can get ahead of the rest,'” he added.

In the 2000s, central and local authorities pumped billions of dollars into subsidies and tax breaks and bid out public transportation contracts to electric vehicle companies.

“It is at the root of the country’s economic system. The Chinese government knows how to focus resources on the industries it wants to develop,” Zeyi Yang wrote in the MIT Technology Review journal.

China has also developed the necessary infrastructure to boost the industry. According to the government, more than 5.8 million charging stations are in the country.

According to Bloomberg data, there are approximately three times as many charging terminals as in the entire United States in Guangdong province alone.

The Chinese market has more than 94 brands featuring more than 300 models. This a development that foreign competitors are watching closely, forced to reinvent themselves in a highly competitive environment.

The brands present on the Chinese market “serve as models” for others, assures Lotus’ Johnstone.

ADAPTING TO OTHER MARKETS

The Chinese brands also target foreign markets, as is the case of BYD, one of the leading sellers in the country. The company sells its vehicles in about 50 countries, including Europe, which has become a priority.

The group from Shenzhen, in southern China, has set a goal to export 300,000 vehicles worldwide this year. Last year it exported 50,000, according to the public television station CCTV.

The Zeekr brand, which belongs to local car giant Geely, announced that it would sell its first models in Sweden and the Netherlands by the end of this year. Then it will reach other countries.

Spiros Fotinos, Zeekr’s general manager for Europe, explains that opinions about the quality of Chinese production are changing.

“Consumers see a lot of innovative safety technology, with driver assistance systems that are cutting edge,” he told AFP.

But the match is not yet won, warns Elliot Richards, who points out that Chinese automakers will have to adapt to the Western market, which is quite different from their own.

The ambition, however, remains. The Asian giant, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases, wants car sales to be primarily of non-polluting vehicles by 2035.