Cars that park themselves autonomously, equipped with voice assistants and batteries with a range of 700 kilometers and rechargeable in 20 minutes, are part of the new generation of Chinese cars that threaten the competition.
“China’s copying period is over”The marketing director of the German manufacturer Volkswagen in the Asian country, Jochen Sengpiehl, told the Lusa agency. “Innovation is happening here,” he added.
The emergence of Chinese brands, some founded less than a decade ago with an eye on the electric segment, promises to have a “huge impact” on the industry, warned Carlos Martins, who runs a factory for the Portuguese auto components company Sodecia. in the northeast. Porcelain. .
Carlos Martins, who has lived in the country for ten years, highlighted to Lusa the “completely different” speed of action of local manufacturers, compared to their European counterparts, who have “very heavy” organizational structures and take “a long time.” to execute modifications.
Last year, Volkswagen’s ID series electric models did not exceed 3% market share in the electric segment in China.which represents 50% of the German manufacturer’s global sales.
Electric vehicles accounted for 24% of new car sales in China in 2023, according to industry data. If hybrids are included, the proportion of new energy vehicles in total sales reached 36%.
Volkswagen is preparing to launch new models in collaboration with Xpeng, the Chinese electric car brand for which it paid 630 million euros for a 4.99% stake in 2023. “We can no longer do everything alone,” admitted Sengpiehl.
This is the reconfiguration of the automobile by the Chinese technology companies Huawei, Xiaomi or Baidu from a means of private transportation powered by an internal combustion engine, to a technological device powered by electrical energy.
“Create a mobile home” is, for example, the motto of Li Auto, the Chinese manufacturer whose vehicles are equipped with gesture control technology, a karaoke system, power outlets, a refrigerator or a 17-inch OLED panel where you can watch movies. or play games.
“Traditional brands are bringing analog toys to the digital realm,” Tu Le, director of the consulting firm Sino Auto Insights, described to Lusa. The title of a report published by The New York Times is equally emphatic: “For China’s auto market, electricity is not the future. It is the present.”
Chinese dominance also extends to the battery industry. The Chinese CATL and BYD are the largest manufacturers in the world. Beijing still maintains tight control over access to essential raw materials.
This is the result of more than a decade of subsidies, long-term investments and infrastructure spending. “It took a focused industrial policy, a lot of patience and a lot of capital,” Tu summarized.
In 2014, Chinese leader Xi Jinping stated that the development of electric cars was the only way for China to become an “automotive power”, which became part of the five-year plans drawn up by the Chinese Communist Party and, in In the following years, hundreds of electric vehicle brands were created in the country.
This has generated excess production capacity and a financial sustainability problem: more than 60% of Chinese electric car manufacturers sell less than 10,000 cars a year.
Due to the ongoing fierce price war, only the North American Tesla and BYD can remain profitable, which should lead to consolidation of the sector in the coming years.
In no other region of the world is the transformation of the automotive industry as rapid as in China,” said Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen, at a press conference at the China Motor Show.
“This market has become a kind of high-performance center for us. We have to work harder and faster to maintain it,” he stated.
Source: Observadora
