Chinese Electric Car: BYD Calls to “Demolish” Europe

The giant of electric cars calls for an alliance among Chinese manufacturers to “tear down old legends” and dominate the world.

Unity is strength. Finding common enemies is very practical when it comes to easing internal tensions. China is now the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars, but also the largest domestic market. BYD, for example, sells three times more units than Tesla, not to mention Geely, SAIC, and their affiliates.

BYD’s CEO, Wang Chuanfu, sparked controversy during a presentation of one of his models, urging Chinese manufacturers to unite to “tear down old legends and create new global brands. (…) I believe the time for Chinese brands has come. (…) Our stories (Chinese brands. Ed.) are different from each other, but we aim in the same direction“.

Open hostility towards foreign cars, especially European ones, is no longer masked. Clearly, Mr. Wang is calling on his rivals to stand together and pool their efforts to move in the same direction. Meanwhile, Europe must urgently build a defense to prevent being overwhelmed. President Macron and France have already shown the way by conditioning, starting in 2024, the eligibility for ecological bonuses on electric cars with a virtuous carbon footprint. In other words: cars produced in Europe that don’t travel the world by cargo to reach our roads.

Furthermore, there’s a second interpretation of BYD boss’s call for a Chinese union: price wars in China are so fierce that profit margins are extremely thin. New models are launched incessantly, and this reckless expenditure could lead everyone to the bottom. The ruthless competition between Geely, SAIC, and BYD chips away at profits, reliability, and capacity to shine. China wants to shed its image as a low-cost producer that is condemned to produce huge volumes just to survive.

Europe is doing the opposite: small volumes but very high margins. The semi-annual results of Stellantis, BMW, and Volkswagen confirmed this again early 2023.

Who will be right? Who will win? The future of the automobile is being decided today.

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