Chinese EV dominance is clear but should we be worried?
China dominates the global electric vehicle (EV) industry today, and it is only likely to get more dominant in the future. Chinese dominance spans manufacturing, batteries, supply chains and demand. Today 60% of all EVs sold in the world are in China.
Nearly 40% of new car sales in China are now EVs. And more than half the world’s EV batteries are made in the People’s Republic. The US is a distant second with about 15% of the world’s market.
During the last quarter of 2023, BYD, the largest Chinese player (and a maker of both batteries and EVs), overtook Tesla in global EV sales, selling 526,000 battery-only vehicles (BEV). For the whole year, Shenzhen-based BYD sold 3 million ‘new energy vehicles,’ which include BEVs and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). The brand-name BYD is inspired by the slogan ‘Build Your Dreams’ and its buses and taxis operate in cities as diverse as London, Santiago, Helsinki, Hong Kong and Mexico City.
BYD now sells 10 models cheaper than the entry-level Tesla 3 model. BYD uses lithium-iron phosphate technology for its batteries, rather than the nickel manganese cobalt kind initially chosen by many Western EV manufacturers. Except for some high-end performance EVs, most manufacturers are now switching to lithium, where BYD holds a commanding lead in experience and expertise.
China’s EV industry has a storied past. EV technology was introduced as a priority science project in its 2001 Five-Year Plan. In 2007, Wan Gang, an automobile engineer who had worked at Audi in Germany for a decade, became its minister of science and technology.
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