--- title: "China's Electric Car Industry is Insane: How China Dominates Global EV Manufacturing" description: "Imagine an electric car, and what do you think of? For many, it's probably a Tesla that comes to mind, a sleek little sedan, or the strange robotic bug-larva shape of the Cybertruck. Perhaps it's the first electric or hybrid car you saw back in the day, a Toyota Prius or a Nissan Leaf, something like that. Perhaps it's a Volkswagen, a Skoda, an Audi, a Fiat, a Rivian—the list goes on. They're an increasingly visible part of the global shift away from fossil fuels, a near-ubiquitous presence on the roads, and, in many parts of the world, the proud occupants of some sweet little parking spots with a charging station right there, ready to use.\n\nBut if it's those American and European automobiles that come to mind, then we'd be willing to bet that the electric vehicle industry's entire other dimension may have escaped your notice—even though they, not your favorite EV-maker, are the biggest dealership in town. That dealership would be that of China's electric vehicle industry, a modern-day behemoth of design and manufacturing. It produces more EVs than every other nation on Earth, combined. It corners the market in areas where the global West isn't even ready to compete. It's so good at what it does that the American, European, and East Asian auto industries that it can wipe iconic automakers like Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, and more, completely off the map.\n\nThis is China's absolutely wild electric vehicle industry, a beast so gargantuan and so ravenous that in the end, it might simply be unstoppable.\n\n## Becoming a Giant\n\nFor a nation that went all-in on electric automobiles relatively late in modern history, the idea of electric vehicles has been a part of Chinese ambition for a surprisingly long time. All the way back in the 1960s, Maoist economic planners were already moving to establish an electric bicycle industry, an idea that would be revived unsuccessfully in the 1980s, and then really take off by the turn of the 21st century. Although it was mostly an attempt to cut down on the congestion, pollution, and inherent risks with the mass use of gasoline-powered motorbikes across China, the change to electric bicycles caught on like wildfire, with over ten million e-bikes sold in China in the year 2005 alone. By contrast, figures from the US Department of Energy indicate that US customers only purchased one million e-bikes in a year for the first time in 2022, seventeen years after China sold ten times that. Back then, China's e-bike industry was already diversifying fast, with hundreds of models available for sale, and no charging stations beyond a simple wall outlet required to charge them up. Around that same time, China's scooter batteries could already compete directly with gas-powered scooters without being nearly so bulky as to become an inconvenience, and better yet, they were affordable, not just for well-off residents of the cities but poorer urban residents, and rural village-dwellers as well.\n\nBut China's electric vehicle industry is about *way* more than just e-bikes, and its push toward the real global moneymaker, electric cars, was a product less of intentional societal reform in the cities, and more of an attempt to play catch-up. China did, of course, have its own automobile industry in the early oughts, but while it could produce a hell of a lot of cars, very quickly, it had missed the opportunity to become competitive in the global auto market. China's cars weren't well-known enough internationally to simply open up dealerships alongside Nissan and Chevrolet; they weren't of a quality that could compete with BMW or Mercedes Benz in the high-end market; and they weren't going to be able to simply undercut other international auto-makers, either. Traditional, internal-combustion automobiles simply weren't an area where China would ever catch up—but over in the electric-vehicle industry, there were some very interesting possibilities just starting to open up.\n\nChina's late start, in this area, had its advantages. The US and East Asia, by example, had already watched companies like Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, and Nissan work overtime to produce consumer-worthy electric vehicles, but the issue had grown deeply political in the United States, and interest in fuel-efficient, hybrid, and electric vehicles had gone down the tubes in the US. Gas prices were low, the economy was good, and even the best electric cars still had a range under a hundred miles. Although Europe, Japan, and other important auto markets still had interest in EVs, consumer demand there was for low-range, low-speed vehicles that you could take puttering around your neighborhood or to the nearest city, but certainly wouldn't want to take on a cross-country road trip. More promising non-traditional vehicles were, for the most part, hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Although those cars still relied partially on internal-combustion engines, they were seen as both more appealing and trustworthy for consumers, and a safer bet for automakers that still feared that the world simply wasn't ready for an all-out push on electric vehicles.\n\nAll that, taken together, presented China with a golden opportunity. If China could concede defeat on the internal-combustion and hybrid vehicles that the world was focused on, then it could pivot to what was, at that moment, a blind spot: full-electric vehicles that were, by then, just a few years off. China, with its ability to influence and manipulate market demand in its own country, could make the domestic transition to EVs a lot easier than, say, the United States could. And if it could invest in research and development early, taking advantage of a rapidly growing economy in the process, then China could not just have *any* electric vehicle ready to go, but better and more sophisticated ones than the US, Japan, or Europe. In the process, China could draw down its dependence on international oil, and reduce its staggering air pollution issues. As early as 2001, China was funneling money toward the required technologies to start making electric vehicles *en masse*, laying the groundwork for a potential manufacturing explosion, once the key technological advancements came along.\n\nThe process was neither a quick, nor an easy one for China, but between a series of windfalls to help the process, and its inherent advantages in research and manufacturing, it made quick progress anyhow. In 2007, an auto engineer with a decade of experience with Audi and additional bona fides personally testing Tesla's first electric vehicle, 2008's Roadster, became China's Minister of Science and Technology. He's since been credited with the decision to boost EV research and production to the top of China's priority list. Then, China began subsidizing EV companies heavily, in order to get them through the tough early years of development and low sales, and in order to incentivize potential customers to buy the product they sold. Before the Chinese consumer was ready to buy electric vehicles directly, China issued contracts to its automakers to produce their EVs for use in public transit. In the big cities, waivers that usually make it difficult to get a license plate were waived for anyone willing to buy an EV, and individual cities engaged in their own pilot programs to spread the technology however they felt would lead to the greatest local success. International automakers, not just domestic Chinese ones, were welcome to take advantage of all those same subsidy programs and assistance packages, if they so wished. Tesla, in particular, was courted aggressively, and the approach worked. Tesla would open its first Gigafactory in Shanghai in 2019 after it was built in under a year, and today, about half of all Tesla cars are manufactured there. All the while, Chinese industry has been forced to raise itself to, and beyond the Tesla standard, to the extent that now, Tesla is forced to try and keep pace with China's EV makers, not the other way around.\n\nAnd on the technology side, rapid advances have come part and parcel with the evolution of the industry overall. China has led the way on lithium iron phosphate batteries, a safer, cheaper option that did, at one time, have real drawbacks when measured against the lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries that most of the world has relied on in its EV development. Today, though, Chinese battery companies have been able to get past those technological barriers. At the same time, China controls much of the world's refineries for battery components like cobalt, graphite, and more complex compounds. On the manufacturing side, China has gone all-in on automating its production lines and digitalizing its design and manufacturing process. And when it comes to high-tech bells and whistles, China is out in front of the pack too, pushing for autonomous driving features, complex voice control, and other elements that create a user experience rivaling the very best that Western auto manufacturing has to offer—even when comparing to all Western automobiles, not just electric vehicles.\n\n## Autos, Trucks, and Buses—Āi yā!\n\nNow, although the grand view of China's electric vehicle industry is, undoubtedly, quite impressive, we've also got to get down to brass tacks, and take a closer look at both the vehicles that have dominated China's EV industry, and the companies that have dominated it. In both areas, there's simply too much to talk about for us to present a comprehensive overview of any reasonable length, so rather than present an exhaustive list, we'll discuss the major players first and foremost.\n\nChina's biggest electric vehicle manufacturer, by far, is BYD, an organization with a name that, when it was first founded, didn't actually mean anything, but has more recently been adapted into the long-form name, Build Your Dreams. At the end of 2023, BYD was the top-selling EV manufacturer in the world, over and above even Tesla. It became the first company in world history to produce six million individual electric vehicles, and it took an additional prize, as the third-most-valuable car manufacturer in the world. BYD is one of those companies that controls every step of its production process, from manufacturing of batteries and electric motors, to the component parts that make up the exterior and interior of their vehicles, to their computer chips, to even the lithium that their batteries rely on. Over the past few years, BYD has exploded in popularity in China, and it's introduced luxury, off-roading, and other specialized brands to match. Their vehicles have found purchase in Europe, becoming directly competitive with Europe's own electric and traditional combustion vehicles, and they're popular in Australia and Brazil as well.\n\nBYD offers a wide range of high-selling automobiles, but the most popular, by a significant margin, are the Qin Plus and Song Plus line of EVs. Both are adaptations of existing internal-combustion automobiles, but that hasn't stopped their electric versions from gaining major traction. The newest Qin Plus vehicles boast a range of 600 kilometers, or 373 miles, while the Song Plus can get just a little bit further. Then, there's the Dolphin, a hatchback car that's become near-ubiquitous in China as a family subcompact car. Featuring modern internal electronic infotainment systems, the Dolphin hits a range of about 340 kilometers or 211 miles, and it's recently been introduced across Europe, Oceania, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and the nations of Southeast Asia. The Atto 3 SUV is made with an internal style meant to resemble the interior of a fitness gym, and it features a range of 430 kilometers, 267 miles, in standard models. Perhaps most impressive under the BYD banner is its high-performance supercoupe EV, the Yangwang U9, first unveiled in April of 2023. Developed by famed Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo head designer Wolfgang Egger, the U9 only went into full production in August of 2024, but its performance specs are very impressive on paper. Using four electric motors with a combined output of 1,300 horsepower, the U9 goes zero to sixty in 2.36 seconds, and has been tracked at 309 kilometers per hour, 192 miles per hour. It features a proprietary, BYD-designed system to redistribute torque among its wheels if a tire punctures while driving at speed, with the system's potential remedies even including a brief vertical jump function in which all four wheels of the car first shrink down, and then launch upward so that the car, and its driver, can momentarily take flight.\n\nThen, there's the SAIC Motor Corporation, formerly the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. The biggest of China's Big Four state-owned car manufacturers, SAIC ranks third in the world for combined electric and hybrid vehicle companies, and second in the world for the manufacture of full-electric vehicles. Between its directly owned brands and its numerous joint ventures, including some alongside Volkswagen and General Motors, SAIC is widely successful across various auto models, and it's making intense and continual attempts to break into European markets. SAIC launches new auto models at stunning rates, often accounting for an unusually high proportion of all new Chinese vehicle models launched in a given year.\n\nAmong SAIC's more impressive cars is the L7, manufactured via the subsidiary venture IM Motors. In addition to an electric range of 615 kilometers or 382 miles, the L7 uses an intelligent driving system to drive fully autonomously on freeways, semi-autonomously on city streets, and both summon itself on command from a driver, and auto-park. It also introduces wireless charging, a critical departure from the corded charging models that most of the world still relies on. Alongside the L7 are the LS6, a crossover SUV with a range of 700 kilometers, 430 miles, and the ability to go zero to sixty in three and a half seconds. Under the British subsidiary MG Motor, SAIC offers the MG4 Electric, a car that can go from having an empty battery, to being able to drive 200 kilometers or 124 miles, after a charging time of just five minutes. From the same subsidiary, the crossover SUV, ZS, broke ground in Australia as the cheapest EV ever to be sold in the country, and it's now SAIC's bestselling model around the world. MG also produces an electric roadster called the Cyber GTS, featuring zero-to-sixty acceleration in 3.2 seconds, a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour or 124 miles per hour, and an infotainment system powered by the Unreal Engine 4 graphics package, as seen in games like *Fortnite*. SAIC's subsidiaries also produce the Rising Auto F7, an executive car with a range of over 660 kilometers or 410 miles, and the Rising Auto R7, a crossover SUV version with a comparable range. Its electric minivan, the Maxus MIFA 9, boasts a range of 650 kilometers or 400 miles.\n\nAnd far beyond the big brands, there's also the question of sheer performance—where, at the cutting edge of the EV market, China's fastest models are able to match the performance of top international sportscars. We've mentioned the Yangwang U9, topping out at 309 kilometers per hour, 192 miles per hour, but it's not even the fastest EV that China has to offer. That honor goes to the Nio EP9, top speed 194 miles per hour or 314 kilometers per hour, featuring a carbon-fiber chassis and a zero-to-sixty acceleration in 2.7 seconds, plus an advanced torque vectoring system that adjusts wheel-by-wheel power output. The Xiaomi SU7 Max, produced by the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer, is capable of hitting top speeds of 265 kilometers or 165 miles per hour, plus a range of nearly 800 kilometers, 500 miles. The Aion Hyper SSR may be constrained to a top speed of just 155 miles per hour, but it features 1,200 horsepower under the hood, plus scissor doors and a reported range of 505 kilometers, or 314 miles.\n\nBut even this still undersells the true range of China's electric vehicle industry; in fact, once we move past family passenger vehicles, the degree to which China has achieved international dominance only becomes more obvious. China is responsible for the vast majority of electric buses around the world, with just the BYD company having already delivered over a hundred thousand electric buses around the world, including its B12 double-deckers, and its B18 and K11 articulated models. The Geely company produces both city buses and tour buses, and the same is true for SAIC, producing several types of electric and trolleybuses for use all across China. All in all, Chinese manufacturers are responsible for over 95% of the global stock of electric buses, and that figure doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. Chinese companies produces all-electric street sweepers, trash trucks, mining trucks, light- and medium-duty box trucks, panel vans, and even London-style black cabs. All the while, China's e-bike industry is still thriving, with an estimated thirty-four million units sold in 2023, and that number only expected to rise further in the next several years. Inside the country, foreign auto brands are largely irrelevant, other than the Tesla brand and some German models, while domestic automakers, especially EV manufacturers, now entirely dominate the market.\n\n## Titans of Industry\n\nIn the 2020s, China's electric vehicle industry is, by far, the biggest in the world. Two out of every three electric vehicles around the world are built by Chinese firms, while over three-quarters of EV batteries come out of Chinese factories. In the span of just four years, from 2020 to 2023, China's EV exports increased by 800 percent, and today, for every three new car models that American, Japanese, and European companies crank out, China releases four. On the research end, sixty-five percent of research publications on electric batteries come out of China, against less than twelve percent from the United States, while on the sheer production side, 2024 will likely see over ten million electric vehicles roll off China's assembly lines, a 1.1-million-unit increase over 2023. For China, the industry is nothing short of spectacular, a global leader in every possible metric, and well on the way to changing the world's automotive industry for good.\n\nYet it's still critical to understand that China's EV industry, despite its stunning power, is still very much in development. The nation's automakers are still working overtime to fill any niche they can find, and to push performance metrics not just past their competitors, but to a level where their product would become impossible to ignore on the global stage. In some areas, China's EVs are still not particularly close to rivaling internal-combustion vehicles; in just one example, most of the country's electric pickup trucks feature a hauling capacity that can only be described as dismal. But just like any attempt to look at China's EV industry ten years ago, and call it a finished product, would have been misguided, the same is true now. In some ways, the approach seems almost as simple as, \"throw everything at the wall and see what sticks\", but China's approach is undergirded by the simple *maths* of large-scale innovation. Get enough companies working at a wide enough range of objectives, with substantial enough financial and industrial support, and advancements are bound to come along, sooner than later. Although, in 2024, a noted drop in China's EV production and sale rates certainly isn't irrelevant, attempts to frame the drop as a warning sign for the end of China's EV advantage…are simply premature. China's electric-vehicle industry simply isn't at the mercy of the consumer, at least to the extent that the rest of the world might be. Although China is headed into what appears to be some economically lean years, its EV industry remains a top priority, and it'll almost certainly continue to receive the state backing that that entails.\n\nIn a practical sense, the incredible swell of China's EV industry has posed a real test for the US, Japan, and Europe. Although electric vehicles from these places can certainly compete with China for now, there are warning signs everywhere on the horizon that the balance is likely to shift. By example, China's competitor nations have lagged substantially behind when it comes to categories like electric buses and public transit, electric vans and utility vehicles, and large electric trucks, where machines like the German Daimler Truck manufacturer's eCascadia are only just coming onto the market. Meanwhile, the average US electric car only boasts a range of under 300 miles, while the most promising handful of longer-range EVs are only just reaching price parity with internal-combustion vehicles this year. All the while, China's long-range EVs are being produced across a far wider range of brands and manufacturers, and at higher volumes and lower prices overall. And the company that many in the US, Europe, and Japan see as the Western world's main counter to Chinese EVs, Tesla, is far less loyal to those markets than their consumers may have hoped. Just this summer, Tesla cars became the first foreign-owned electric vehicle brand to be placed on purchase catalogues for Chinese government officials, and that's no accident. Today, Tesla is more dependent on China than China is dependent on Tesla, and Tesla founder Elon Musk's cozy relationship with China's leader, Xi Jinping, is yet more proof positive.\n\nAs that situation evolves, leaders across each nation with its own booming auto industry has faced pressure to try and stop the rise of Chinese electric vehicles, and in many places, that pressure has led to political action. In the United States, president Joe Biden has faced pressure for years to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars, and in 2024, America's presidential administration opened investigations into the potential national security risks of Chinese EVs. On American leaders' collective minds are the risks posed by the data Chinese EVs would harvest *en masse* from their drivers and passengers, and their use of Internet-connected cameras and sensors to record, quoting the White House here, \"detailed information on US infrastructure\". Also listed among the leading concerns is the potential for these cars to be piloted and disabled remotely, perhaps even from China, and their proximity to critical US infrastructure.\n\nFor now, the US has imposed severe tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, driving up costs for consumers to the point that they don't make sense to purchase. But even now, China has worked to get around those regulations, setting up shop in Mexico so that EVs produced there, and then sent straight to the US, aren't subject to the same tariffs. Without the price barriers, China's EVs cost about half of what America's do in the US market, meaning that China could dramatically undercut the US electric vehicle industry. The Alliance for American Manufacturing has warned that such an outcome would be a, quote, \"extinction-level event\" for the US auto industry. Meanwhile, the European Union raised its own tariffs on Chinese EVs in July of 2024, ratcheting up its imposed costs on individual car manufacturers until they reached anywhere from seventeen and a half percent, to nearly thirty-eight percent, on top of a ten-percent duty levied against all imported EVs coming from China.\n\nTaken together, these price controls can slow the tide of China's EV industry…but they can't stop it. Raising tariffs simply puts incentives on Chinese automakers, and even the CCP itself, to further lower the prices of their vehicles, with some cars, like the hatchback Seagull made by BYD, already less costly than comparable US vehicles even despite the tariffs. Like China is doing in Mexico, a ban on the import of these cars *from China* simply incentivizes China to outsource production so that cars are imported from other nations. The automobiles themselves can be banned, but this in turn risks devolving into a bitter trade war with China, where the rest of the world would have to suffer just as much hardship as China does, if not more. And with China still producing its vehicles, still rolling them out of factories at astonishing rates, it's not clear that the momentum China's EVs already have, could be stopped by such an effort.\n\nAll indicators are, China's EV industry is here to stay, and the vehicles they make, are likely to cruise down streets across America, across the EU, across Asia, and elsewhere, in due time. If these other global governments want to stand in the Chinese EV industry's way, there's still time—but they're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than they've done so far.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- China's electric vehicle industry is the largest globally, producing more EVs than all other nations combined.\n- China's EV industry began with electric bicycles in the 1960s and has since expanded to dominate the market.\n- BYD is China's leading EV manufacturer, producing a wide range of vehicles and controlling every step of production.\n- China's EVs are highly competitive, with models like the Yangwang U9 and Nio EP9 matching top international sportscars.\n- The US and EU have imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, but China's industry continues to grow and innovate rapidly.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Which company is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China?\n\nBYD (Build Your Dreams) is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China and the world, having produced over six million electric vehicles by the end of 2023.\n\n### What are some of the most popular electric vehicles in China?\n\nSome of the most popular electric vehicles in China include the BYD Qin Plus, Song Plus, Dolphin, and Atto 3 SUV. SAIC Motor Corporation also has popular models like the L7, LS6, and MG4 Electric.\n\n### How does China's electric vehicle industry compare to the rest of the world?\n\nChina's electric vehicle industry is the largest in the world, producing more EVs than every other nation combined. It leads in areas like electric buses, public transit, and utility vehicles.\n\n### What role does Tesla play in China's electric vehicle market?\n\nTesla has a significant presence in China, with its first Gigafactory in Shanghai. About half of all Tesla cars are manufactured there, and Tesla is forced to keep pace with China's EV makers.\n\n### What are some of the technological advancements in China's electric vehicle industry?\n\nChina leads in lithium iron phosphate batteries, controls much of the world's refineries for battery components, and is advancing in autonomous driving features and voice control systems.\n\n### How has the Chinese government supported the electric vehicle industry?\n\nThe Chinese government has subsidized EV companies, incentivized customers to buy EVs, and issued contracts for public transit use. It has also welcomed international automakers to take advantage of subsidy programs.\n\n### What are some of the fastest electric vehicles produced in China?\n\nSome of the fastest electric vehicles produced in China include the Nio EP9, Xiaomi SU7 Max, and Aion Hyper SSR, with top speeds ranging from 155 to 314 kilometers per hour.\n\n### How has the global response been to China's dominance in the electric vehicle market?\n\nThe US, EU, and other countries have imposed tariffs and investigated national security risks related to Chinese EVs. However, these measures may not be enough to stop China's EV industry.\n\n### What is the significance of BYD's Yangwang U9?\n\nThe BYD Yangwang U9 is a high-performance supercoupe EV with four electric motors producing 1,300 horsepower. It can go from zero to sixty in 2.36 seconds and has a top speed of 309 kilometers per hour.\n\n### What is the current state of China's electric vehicle industry?\n\nChina's electric vehicle industry is still in development but is the largest in the world. 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[https://www.wsj.com/world/china/why-musk-now-needs-china-more-than-it-needs-him-128e33b0](https://www.wsj.com/world/china/why-musk-now-needs-china-more-than-it-needs-him-128e33b0)\n- [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy99z53qypko](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy99z53qypko)\n- [https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/cars/eu-ev-tariffs-china-effects-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/cars/eu-ev-tariffs-china-effects-analysis-intl-hnk/index.html)\n- [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/4/eu-imposes-tariffs-of-up-to-38-on-chinese-electric-vehicles](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/4/eu-imposes-tariffs-of-up-to-38-on-chinese-electric-vehicles)\n- [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyerg64dn97o](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyerg64dn97o)\n- [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-chinese-ev-tariffs-dont-address-lingering-national-security-concerns/](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bidens-chinese-ev-tariffs-dont-address-lingering-national-security-concerns/)\n- [https://apnews.com/article/china-vehicles-mexico-evs-automakers-tariffs-f526c5e52b95b624bb4b15d2038e289a](https://apnews.com/article/china-vehicles-mexico-evs-automakers-tariffs-f526c5e52b95b624bb4b15d2038e289a)\n- [https://apnews.com/article/china-byd-auto-seagull-auto-ev-cae20c92432b74e95c234d93ec1df400](https://apnews.com/article/china-byd-auto-seagull-auto-ev-cae20c92432b74e95c234d93ec1df400)\n- [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/business/biden-evs.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/27/business/biden-evs.html)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Baojun_Yueye_%28Yep%29_Plus_01_China_2024-03-22.jpg) by Navigator84 / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://megaprojects.pub/article/chinas-electric-car-industry-is-insane.md canonical: https://megaprojects.pub/article/chinas-electric-car-industry-is-insane datePublished: 2026-07-02 dateModified: 2026-07-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://megaprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: MegaProjects image: "https://media.megaprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=600,height=338,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/9xIE9seg6Os/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 90489efee1f9a8c9cefa3198c36011f3d85dc9b2dce675d64276663f91d18336 tokens: 8720 summaryUrl: https://megaprojects.pub/article/chinas-electric-car-industry-is-insane.md.summary.md --- Imagine an electric car, and what do you think of? For many, it's probably a Tesla that comes to mind, a sleek little sedan, or the strange robotic bug-larva shape of the Cybertruck. Perhaps it's the first electric or hybrid car you saw back in the day, a Toyota Prius or a Nissan Leaf, something like that. Perhaps it's a Volkswagen, a Skoda, an Audi, a Fiat, a Rivian—the list goes on. They're an increasingly visible part of the global shift away from fossil fuels, a near-ubiquitous presence on the roads, and, in many parts of the world, the proud occupants of some sweet little parking spots with a charging station right there, ready to use. But if it's those American and European automobiles that come to mind, then we'd be willing to bet that the electric vehicle industry's entire other dimension may have escaped your notice—even though they, not your favorite EV-maker, are the biggest dealership in town. That dealership would be that of China's electric vehicle industry, a modern-day behemoth of design and manufacturing. It produces more EVs than every other nation on Earth, combined. It corners the market in areas where the global West isn't even ready to compete. It's so good at what it does that the American, European, and East Asian auto industries that it can wipe iconic automakers like Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, and more, completely off the map. This is China's absolutely wild electric vehicle industry, a beast so gargantuan and so ravenous that in the end, it might simply be unstoppable. ## Becoming a Giant For a nation that went all-in on electric automobiles relatively late in modern history, the idea of electric vehicles has been a part of Chinese ambition for a surprisingly long time. All the way back in the 1960s, Maoist economic planners were already moving to establish an electric bicycle industry, an idea that would be revived unsuccessfully in the 1980s, and then really take off by the turn of the 21st century. Although it was mostly an attempt to cut down on the congestion, pollution, and inherent risks with the mass use of gasoline-powered motorbikes across China, the change to electric bicycles caught on like wildfire, with over ten million e-bikes sold in China in the year 2005 alone. By contrast, figures from the US Department of Energy indicate that US customers only purchased one million e-bikes in a year for the first time in 2022, seventeen years after China sold ten times that. Back then, China's e-bike industry was already diversifying fast, with hundreds of models available for sale, and no charging stations beyond a simple wall outlet required to charge them up. Around that same time, China's scooter batteries could already compete directly with gas-powered scooters without being nearly so bulky as to become an inconvenience, and better yet, they were affordable, not just for well-off residents of the cities but poorer urban residents, and rural village-dwellers as well. But China's electric vehicle industry is about *way* more than just e-bikes, and its push toward the real global moneymaker, electric cars, was a product less of intentional societal reform in the cities, and more of an attempt to play catch-up. China did, of course, have its own automobile industry in the early oughts, but while it could produce a hell of a lot of cars, very quickly, it had missed the opportunity to become competitive in the global auto market. China's cars weren't well-known enough internationally to simply open up dealerships alongside Nissan and Chevrolet; they weren't of a quality that could compete with BMW or Mercedes Benz in the high-end market; and they weren't going to be able to simply undercut other international auto-makers, either. Traditional, internal-combustion automobiles simply weren't an area where China would ever catch up—but over in the electric-vehicle industry, there were some very interesting possibilities just starting to open up. China's late start, in this area, had its advantages. The US and East Asia, by example, had already watched companies like Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, and Nissan work overtime to produce consumer-worthy electric vehicles, but the issue had grown deeply political in the United States, and interest in fuel-efficient, hybrid, and electric vehicles had gone down the tubes in the US. Gas prices were low, the economy was good, and even the best electric cars still had a range under a hundred miles. Although Europe, Japan, and other important auto markets still had interest in EVs, consumer demand there was for low-range, low-speed vehicles that you could take puttering around your neighborhood or to the nearest city, but certainly wouldn't want to take on a cross-country road trip. More promising non-traditional vehicles were, for the most part, hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight. Although those cars still relied partially on internal-combustion engines, they were seen as both more appealing and trustworthy for consumers, and a safer bet for automakers that still feared that the world simply wasn't ready for an all-out push on electric vehicles. All that, taken together, presented China with a golden opportunity. If China could concede defeat on the internal-combustion and hybrid vehicles that the world was focused on, then it could pivot to what was, at that moment, a blind spot: full-electric vehicles that were, by then, just a few years off. China, with its ability to influence and manipulate market demand in its own country, could make the domestic transition to EVs a lot easier than, say, the United States could. And if it could invest in research and development early, taking advantage of a rapidly growing economy in the process, then China could not just have *any* electric vehicle ready to go, but better and more sophisticated ones than the US, Japan, or Europe. In the process, China could draw down its dependence on international oil, and reduce its staggering air pollution issues. As early as 2001, China was funneling money toward the required technologies to start making electric vehicles *en masse*, laying the groundwork for a potential manufacturing explosion, once the key technological advancements came along. The process was neither a quick, nor an easy one for China, but between a series of windfalls to help the process, and its inherent advantages in research and manufacturing, it made quick progress anyhow. In 2007, an auto engineer with a decade of experience with Audi and additional bona fides personally testing Tesla's first electric vehicle, 2008's Roadster, became China's Minister of Science and Technology. He's since been credited with the decision to boost EV research and production to the top of China's priority list. Then, China began subsidizing EV companies heavily, in order to get them through the tough early years of development and low sales, and in order to incentivize potential customers to buy the product they sold. Before the Chinese consumer was ready to buy electric vehicles directly, China issued contracts to its automakers to produce their EVs for use in public transit. In the big cities, waivers that usually make it difficult to get a license plate were waived for anyone willing to buy an EV, and individual cities engaged in their own pilot programs to spread the technology however they felt would lead to the greatest local success. International automakers, not just domestic Chinese ones, were welcome to take advantage of all those same subsidy programs and assistance packages, if they so wished. Tesla, in particular, was courted aggressively, and the approach worked. Tesla would open its first Gigafactory in Shanghai in 2019 after it was built in under a year, and today, about half of all Tesla cars are manufactured there. All the while, Chinese industry has been forced to raise itself to, and beyond the Tesla standard, to the extent that now, Tesla is forced to try and keep pace with China's EV makers, not the other way around. And on the technology side, rapid advances have come part and parcel with the evolution of the industry overall. China has led the way on lithium iron phosphate batteries, a safer, cheaper option that did, at one time, have real drawbacks when measured against the lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries that most of the world has relied on in its EV development. Today, though, Chinese battery companies have been able to get past those technological barriers. At the same time, China controls much of the world's refineries for battery components like cobalt, graphite, and more complex compounds. On the manufacturing side, China has gone all-in on automating its production lines and digitalizing its design and manufacturing process. And when it comes to high-tech bells and whistles, China is out in front of the pack too, pushing for autonomous driving features, complex voice control, and other elements that create a user experience rivaling the very best that Western auto manufacturing has to offer—even when comparing to all Western automobiles, not just electric vehicles. ## Autos, Trucks, and Buses—Āi yā! Now, although the grand view of China's electric vehicle industry is, undoubtedly, quite impressive, we've also got to get down to brass tacks, and take a closer look at both the vehicles that have dominated China's EV industry, and the companies that have dominated it. In both areas, there's simply too much to talk about for us to present a comprehensive overview of any reasonable length, so rather than present an exhaustive list, we'll discuss the major players first and foremost. China's biggest electric vehicle manufacturer, by far, is BYD, an organization with a name that, when it was first founded, didn't actually mean anything, but has more recently been adapted into the long-form name, Build Your Dreams. At the end of 2023, BYD was the top-selling EV manufacturer in the world, over and above even Tesla. It became the first company in world history to produce six million individual electric vehicles, and it took an additional prize, as the third-most-valuable car manufacturer in the world. BYD is one of those companies that controls every step of its production process, from manufacturing of batteries and electric motors, to the component parts that make up the exterior and interior of their vehicles, to their computer chips, to even the lithium that their batteries rely on. Over the past few years, BYD has exploded in popularity in China, and it's introduced luxury, off-roading, and other specialized brands to match. Their vehicles have found purchase in Europe, becoming directly competitive with Europe's own electric and traditional combustion vehicles, and they're popular in Australia and Brazil as well. BYD offers a wide range of high-selling automobiles, but the most popular, by a significant margin, are the Qin Plus and Song Plus line of EVs. Both are adaptations of existing internal-combustion automobiles, but that hasn't stopped their electric versions from gaining major traction. The newest Qin Plus vehicles boast a range of 600 kilometers, or 373 miles, while the Song Plus can get just a little bit further. Then, there's the Dolphin, a hatchback car that's become near-ubiquitous in China as a family subcompact car. Featuring modern internal electronic infotainment systems, the Dolphin hits a range of about 340 kilometers or 211 miles, and it's recently been introduced across Europe, Oceania, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, and the nations of Southeast Asia. The Atto 3 SUV is made with an internal style meant to resemble the interior of a fitness gym, and it features a range of 430 kilometers, 267 miles, in standard models. Perhaps most impressive under the BYD banner is its high-performance supercoupe EV, the Yangwang U9, first unveiled in April of 2023. Developed by famed Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo head designer Wolfgang Egger, the U9 only went into full production in August of 2024, but its performance specs are very impressive on paper. Using four electric motors with a combined output of 1,300 horsepower, the U9 goes zero to sixty in 2.36 seconds, and has been tracked at 309 kilometers per hour, 192 miles per hour. It features a proprietary, BYD-designed system to redistribute torque among its wheels if a tire punctures while driving at speed, with the system's potential remedies even including a brief vertical jump function in which all four wheels of the car first shrink down, and then launch upward so that the car, and its driver, can momentarily take flight. Then, there's the SAIC Motor Corporation, formerly the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. The biggest of China's Big Four state-owned car manufacturers, SAIC ranks third in the world for combined electric and hybrid vehicle companies, and second in the world for the manufacture of full-electric vehicles. Between its directly owned brands and its numerous joint ventures, including some alongside Volkswagen and General Motors, SAIC is widely successful across various auto models, and it's making intense and continual attempts to break into European markets. SAIC launches new auto models at stunning rates, often accounting for an unusually high proportion of all new Chinese vehicle models launched in a given year. Among SAIC's more impressive cars is the L7, manufactured via the subsidiary venture IM Motors. In addition to an electric range of 615 kilometers or 382 miles, the L7 uses an intelligent driving system to drive fully autonomously on freeways, semi-autonomously on city streets, and both summon itself on command from a driver, and auto-park. It also introduces wireless charging, a critical departure from the corded charging models that most of the world still relies on. Alongside the L7 are the LS6, a crossover SUV with a range of 700 kilometers, 430 miles, and the ability to go zero to sixty in three and a half seconds. Under the British subsidiary MG Motor, SAIC offers the MG4 Electric, a car that can go from having an empty battery, to being able to drive 200 kilometers or 124 miles, after a charging time of just five minutes. From the same subsidiary, the crossover SUV, ZS, broke ground in Australia as the cheapest EV ever to be sold in the country, and it's now SAIC's bestselling model around the world. MG also produces an electric roadster called the Cyber GTS, featuring zero-to-sixty acceleration in 3.2 seconds, a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour or 124 miles per hour, and an infotainment system powered by the Unreal Engine 4 graphics package, as seen in games like *Fortnite*. SAIC's subsidiaries also produce the Rising Auto F7, an executive car with a range of over 660 kilometers or 410 miles, and the Rising Auto R7, a crossover SUV version with a comparable range. Its electric minivan, the Maxus MIFA 9, boasts a range of 650 kilometers or 400 miles. And far beyond the big brands, there's also the question of sheer performance—where, at the cutting edge of the EV market, China's fastest models are able to match the performance of top international sportscars. We've mentioned the Yangwang U9, topping out at 309 kilometers per hour, 192 miles per hour, but it's not even the fastest EV that China has to offer. That honor goes to the Nio EP9, top speed 194 miles per hour or 314 kilometers per hour, featuring a carbon-fiber chassis and a zero-to-sixty acceleration in 2.7 seconds, plus an advanced torque vectoring system that adjusts wheel-by-wheel power output. The Xiaomi SU7 Max, produced by the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer, is capable of hitting top speeds of 265 kilometers or 165 miles per hour, plus a range of nearly 800 kilometers, 500 miles. The Aion Hyper SSR may be constrained to a top speed of just 155 miles per hour, but it features 1,200 horsepower under the hood, plus scissor doors and a reported range of 505 kilometers, or 314 miles. But even this still undersells the true range of China's electric vehicle industry; in fact, once we move past family passenger vehicles, the degree to which China has achieved international dominance only becomes more obvious. China is responsible for the vast majority of electric buses around the world, with just the BYD company having already delivered over a hundred thousand electric buses around the world, including its B12 double-deckers, and its B18 and K11 articulated models. The Geely company produces both city buses and tour buses, and the same is true for SAIC, producing several types of electric and trolleybuses for use all across China. All in all, Chinese manufacturers are responsible for over 95% of the global stock of electric buses, and that figure doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon. Chinese companies produces all-electric street sweepers, trash trucks, mining trucks, light- and medium-duty box trucks, panel vans, and even London-style black cabs. All the while, China's e-bike industry is still thriving, with an estimated thirty-four million units sold in 2023, and that number only expected to rise further in the next several years. Inside the country, foreign auto brands are largely irrelevant, other than the Tesla brand and some German models, while domestic automakers, especially EV manufacturers, now entirely dominate the market. ## Titans of Industry In the 2020s, China's electric vehicle industry is, by far, the biggest in the world. Two out of every three electric vehicles around the world are built by Chinese firms, while over three-quarters of EV batteries come out of Chinese factories. In the span of just four years, from 2020 to 2023, China's EV exports increased by 800 percent, and today, for every three new car models that American, Japanese, and European companies crank out, China releases four. On the research end, sixty-five percent of research publications on electric batteries come out of China, against less than twelve percent from the United States, while on the sheer production side, 2024 will likely see over ten million electric vehicles roll off China's assembly lines, a 1.1-million-unit increase over 2023. For China, the industry is nothing short of spectacular, a global leader in every possible metric, and well on the way to changing the world's automotive industry for good. Yet it's still critical to understand that China's EV industry, despite its stunning power, is still very much in development. The nation's automakers are still working overtime to fill any niche they can find, and to push performance metrics not just past their competitors, but to a level where their product would become impossible to ignore on the global stage. In some areas, China's EVs are still not particularly close to rivaling internal-combustion vehicles; in just one example, most of the country's electric pickup trucks feature a hauling capacity that can only be described as dismal. But just like any attempt to look at China's EV industry ten years ago, and call it a finished product, would have been misguided, the same is true now. In some ways, the approach seems almost as simple as, "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks", but China's approach is undergirded by the simple *maths* of large-scale innovation. Get enough companies working at a wide enough range of objectives, with substantial enough financial and industrial support, and advancements are bound to come along, sooner than later. Although, in 2024, a noted drop in China's EV production and sale rates certainly isn't irrelevant, attempts to frame the drop as a warning sign for the end of China's EV advantage…are simply premature. China's electric-vehicle industry simply isn't at the mercy of the consumer, at least to the extent that the rest of the world might be. Although China is headed into what appears to be some economically lean years, its EV industry remains a top priority, and it'll almost certainly continue to receive the state backing that that entails. In a practical sense, the incredible swell of China's EV industry has posed a real test for the US, Japan, and Europe. Although electric vehicles from these places can certainly compete with China for now, there are warning signs everywhere on the horizon that the balance is likely to shift. By example, China's competitor nations have lagged substantially behind when it comes to categories like electric buses and public transit, electric vans and utility vehicles, and large electric trucks, where machines like the German Daimler Truck manufacturer's eCascadia are only just coming onto the market. Meanwhile, the average US electric car only boasts a range of under 300 miles, while the most promising handful of longer-range EVs are only just reaching price parity with internal-combustion vehicles this year. All the while, China's long-range EVs are being produced across a far wider range of brands and manufacturers, and at higher volumes and lower prices overall. And the company that many in the US, Europe, and Japan see as the Western world's main counter to Chinese EVs, Tesla, is far less loyal to those markets than their consumers may have hoped. Just this summer, Tesla cars became the first foreign-owned electric vehicle brand to be placed on purchase catalogues for Chinese government officials, and that's no accident. Today, Tesla is more dependent on China than China is dependent on Tesla, and Tesla founder Elon Musk's cozy relationship with China's leader, Xi Jinping, is yet more proof positive. As that situation evolves, leaders across each nation with its own booming auto industry has faced pressure to try and stop the rise of Chinese electric vehicles, and in many places, that pressure has led to political action. In the United States, president Joe Biden has faced pressure for years to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars, and in 2024, America's presidential administration opened investigations into the potential national security risks of Chinese EVs. On American leaders' collective minds are the risks posed by the data Chinese EVs would harvest *en masse* from their drivers and passengers, and their use of Internet-connected cameras and sensors to record, quoting the White House here, "detailed information on US infrastructure". Also listed among the leading concerns is the potential for these cars to be piloted and disabled remotely, perhaps even from China, and their proximity to critical US infrastructure. For now, the US has imposed severe tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, driving up costs for consumers to the point that they don't make sense to purchase. But even now, China has worked to get around those regulations, setting up shop in Mexico so that EVs produced there, and then sent straight to the US, aren't subject to the same tariffs. Without the price barriers, China's EVs cost about half of what America's do in the US market, meaning that China could dramatically undercut the US electric vehicle industry. The Alliance for American Manufacturing has warned that such an outcome would be a, quote, "extinction-level event" for the US auto industry. Meanwhile, the European Union raised its own tariffs on Chinese EVs in July of 2024, ratcheting up its imposed costs on individual car manufacturers until they reached anywhere from seventeen and a half percent, to nearly thirty-eight percent, on top of a ten-percent duty levied against all imported EVs coming from China. Taken together, these price controls can slow the tide of China's EV industry…but they can't stop it. Raising tariffs simply puts incentives on Chinese automakers, and even the CCP itself, to further lower the prices of their vehicles, with some cars, like the hatchback Seagull made by BYD, already less costly than comparable US vehicles even despite the tariffs. Like China is doing in Mexico, a ban on the import of these cars *from China* simply incentivizes China to outsource production so that cars are imported from other nations. The automobiles themselves can be banned, but this in turn risks devolving into a bitter trade war with China, where the rest of the world would have to suffer just as much hardship as China does, if not more. And with China still producing its vehicles, still rolling them out of factories at astonishing rates, it's not clear that the momentum China's EVs already have, could be stopped by such an effort. All indicators are, China's EV industry is here to stay, and the vehicles they make, are likely to cruise down streets across America, across the EU, across Asia, and elsewhere, in due time. If these other global governments want to stand in the Chinese EV industry's way, there's still time—but they're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than they've done so far. ## Key Takeaways - China's electric vehicle industry is the largest globally, producing more EVs than all other nations combined. - China's EV industry began with electric bicycles in the 1960s and has since expanded to dominate the market. - BYD is China's leading EV manufacturer, producing a wide range of vehicles and controlling every step of production. - China's EVs are highly competitive, with models like the Yangwang U9 and Nio EP9 matching top international sportscars. - The US and EU have imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, but China's industry continues to grow and innovate rapidly. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Which company is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China? BYD (Build Your Dreams) is the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in China and the world, having produced over six million electric vehicles by the end of 2023. ### What are some of the most popular electric vehicles in China? Some of the most popular electric vehicles in China include the BYD Qin Plus, Song Plus, Dolphin, and Atto 3 SUV. SAIC Motor Corporation also has popular models like the L7, LS6, and MG4 Electric. ### How does China's electric vehicle industry compare to the rest of the world? China's electric vehicle industry is the largest in the world, producing more EVs than every other nation combined. It leads in areas like electric buses, public transit, and utility vehicles. ### What role does Tesla play in China's electric vehicle market? Tesla has a significant presence in China, with its first Gigafactory in Shanghai. About half of all Tesla cars are manufactured there, and Tesla is forced to keep pace with China's EV makers. ### What are some of the technological advancements in China's electric vehicle industry? China leads in lithium iron phosphate batteries, controls much of the world's refineries for battery components, and is advancing in autonomous driving features and voice control systems. ### How has the Chinese government supported the electric vehicle industry? The Chinese government has subsidized EV companies, incentivized customers to buy EVs, and issued contracts for public transit use. It has also welcomed international automakers to take advantage of subsidy programs. ### What are some of the fastest electric vehicles produced in China? Some of the fastest electric vehicles produced in China include the Nio EP9, Xiaomi SU7 Max, and Aion Hyper SSR, with top speeds ranging from 155 to 314 kilometers per hour. ### How has the global response been to China's dominance in the electric vehicle market? The US, EU, and other countries have imposed tariffs and investigated national security risks related to Chinese EVs. However, these measures may not be enough to stop China's EV industry. ### What is the significance of BYD's Yangwang U9? The BYD Yangwang U9 is a high-performance supercoupe EV with four electric motors producing 1,300 horsepower. It can go from zero to sixty in 2.36 seconds and has a top speed of 309 kilometers per hour. ### What is the current state of China's electric vehicle industry? China's electric vehicle industry is still in development but is the largest in the world. 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