If you are one of those who pay attention to the gears of the vehicles passing by you while walking on the street, you may have noticed that new names have emerged in recent months. And most of them will be from MG. Chinese auto companies have spotted a goldmine in the European automotive market: electric cars. Its presence quickly spread throughout Spain, where twelve brands came to the region (BYD, DSFK, Link & Co, Maxus, MG, Omoda, Smart, Skywell, SWM, Voyah, Yudo and Zhidou) competing with local companies. and let other countries on the continent make room for themselves. Everything is going in their favor right now. Six of the ten companies that sell the most electric vehicles worldwide come from the Asian giant. The emergence of electric Chinese models, along with multimillion-dollar investments planned by some companies in Spain to build their own giant factories, could be a catalyst for a sector that has been left behind in the race to produce the car of the future.
BYD, the only Chinese company in the world where the state does not intervene, tops the list with 1.98 million electric cars sold between January and September this year. Behind it is Tesla, billionaire Elon Musk’s company, with 1.32 million electric vehicles sold in the same period, while GAC Aion and China are in third place with 359,732 electric vehicles sold. Other companies founded in the world’s second-largest economy included in the rankings include SGMW, Li Auto, Changan and Geely. In eleventh place is MG’s owner SAIC. At Spanish level in 2022, Spain purchased Chinese vehicles worth over €1.399 million, 1.905% more than in 2021 Twelve small brands, consisting of both combustion and electric models, had a 3.7% market share with sales of 32,213 passenger cars in the first eleven months of this year. Of these, eight out of every ten Chinese passenger cars sold in Spain in 2023 come from the MG brand, which was the leader in the country with its ZS model in August and September. However, it should be emphasized that so far the Spaniards have purchased combustion vehicles from China rather than electric vehicles. For example, the MG ZS model: 16,729 of the 17,255 units sold of this model were from the gasoline version.
So how does the emergence of Chinese electric cars in Spain affect the car market? The country is the second largest automobile producer in the European Union, behind only Germany, and is also among the largest manufacturers worldwide due to the competitiveness of the automotive sector and component manufacturers in Spain. Driven by their own market, Chinese manufacturers are producing more vehicles at lower prices, which is why the cost of the Chinese electric car is so competitive. As a result of this factor in Spain “A decrease in electric car prices is expected” “It’s because of the competitiveness of Chinese brands,” explains Donia Razazi, senior industry expert at consulting firm Ayming. For the consumer, “this is good news,” for automakers there will be greater competitiveness, and for component manufacturers “it could be a huge opportunity” to make their products available to more customers.
‘Made in China’ cars in Europe
The exit of Chinese companies not only stimulates the market but also Millions will pour into the country in the form of investments to establish giant factories.. The Chinese company Envision has obtained 300 million in public aid, 200 million in non-refundable subsidies and another 100 million in loans in the second appeal of the Electric and Connected Vehicle Perte (VEC) to build a giant factory in Navalmoral de la Mata (Cáceres). and BYD are considering opening two facilities in the EU, with the possibility of establishing one of them in Spain. “At a time when only zero-emission tourism can be sold in Europe from January 1, 2035, it is always good to attract vehicle factories and battery gigafactories to our country, especially if we want Spain to continue to be the second vehicle-producing country in Europe.”, automobile industry They state the association is Anfac. There are many more reasons. The country has a competitive advantage in the field of renewable energy, which can lower prices for companies looking to open factories on Spanish soil. It is also a way to reduce costs. Manufacturers are better off avoiding shipping batteries that are too heavy and often too large in volume, so they prefer to build their gigafactories close to where they sell the vehicles.
China produces about 60% of the world’s electric cars, allowing it to overtake Japan to become the world automotive leader for the first time in June this year. In the first half of the year Nearly 400 thousand electric vehicles were exported to EuropeThat’s where Chinese manufacturers have concentrated their efforts in recent years. The history of the Asian giant and electric cars dates back to the 90s: “While we were still betting on the combustion vehicle, China had already opted for the electric vehicle, so they are years ahead of us,” summarizes director Amadeo Jensana. economic programs at Casa Asia. The Asian country has allocated significant subsidies for the purchase of electric cars, built a charging infrastructure that far exceeds ours, and manufacturers have advanced technologically over these decades.
lack of infrastructure
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Although Europe is making progress in adopting electric cars, there is still a long way to go before consumers become mass interested in them. To meet decarbonization targets set by Europe’s ‘Fit for 55’ package of measures, Spain has had to double its market share this year. But here’s the prediction. We closed the year with sales of 110,000 electric passenger vehicles, 15% below the ideal figure (190,000 vehicles). Something similar is happening with the charging infrastructure. As of September this year, 25,180 public charging points were installed, but 8,869 were not in operation; This corresponds to a quarter (26%) of the total infrastructure. 74% of the total operating points are at low power, which means a minimum charging time of 3 hours.
Anfac insist on the need to “simplify administrative procedures so that a high-power charging point can be operational in just a few weeks and not take months” to catch up with other countries on the continent such as Germany. Portugal. The guess is Thanks to energy and electricity companies, the number of public charging points will increase in the coming years. (Repsol, Cepsa, BP as well as Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy) have already announced a number of investments to establish and increase the existing infrastructure.