The shock generally occurs as soon as you leave the airport. It is there, in the taxi that takes them to the city center of Shanghai, Beijing, Canton or Shenzhen, that foreign visitors discover these new cars. They have totally unknown names, Voyah, Aion, Zeekr, Nio; never before seen logos and designs, like a new automotive planet. This separate universe has, however, become the bulk of the global electric automobile market: according to the China Passenger Vehicle Association, the Chinese market now represents 70% of sales of new energy vehicles in the world – electric and hybrids – compared to 52% in 2022. Since July 2024, these new energy vehicles represent more than half of total automobile sales in China, while they approach a quarter of the automobile market in Europe. Popular adoption of electric vehicles leads to the installation of more charging stations, which in turn facilitates the adoption of these cars. This domination creates jobs, which strengthen Chinese political determination: it pushes the links in the industrial chain to innovation. These are almost circles that economists would describe as virtuous and that European political parties focused on ecology call for, where the transition develops the economy instead of penalizing it. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Europe facing the Chinese automobile wave Read later Of course, China has its own challenges, and they are colossal. With 60% of its electricity still coming from coal, we can consider that its electric cars run… on coal. The overflow of brands and production is, moreover, obvious. The year 2024 was that of the price war, but, for analyst Lei Xing, host of the podcast “China EVs and more”, 2025 will turn into a “bloodbath” between Chinese manufacturers, which will have a social cost. Massive subsidy policy But what China has going for it is the market: the demand for electric vehicles is now well established there. The political discourse in support of the electric car has always been constant, because Beijing saw it as an opportunity for breakthrough. In Europe and the United States, manufacturers rested on their laurels: combustion engines. Many political leaders found it difficult to sell such a speech to their citizens, or were even hostile to it, like the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. You have 42.33% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
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Author : News7
Publish date : 2025-01-07 19:35:49
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