China is comfortably dominating the world’s electric vehicle (EV) industry and is home to three of the top five global players. That’s according to a study cited by AlJazeera, which showed BYD making up 17 percent of the market share, and GAC Aion and SAIC-GM-Wuling accounting for 5.2 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.
While the study noted that Tesla continued to hold first place, with a market share of nearly 20 percent, there are indications that the American EV manufacturer is beginning to falter, as its first quarter sales plummeted by 20 percent year-on-year, driving the company to lay off 10 percent of its global workforce.
In recent years, Chinese EVs have seen their popularity and market share increase exponentially thanks to their competitive prices, which have been made possible by significant government subsidies and the localised production of batteries.
[See more: Guangdong’s electric vehicle output surged by more than 80 percent last year]
Figures from the International Energy Agency indicate that sales of Chinese-made EVs made up roughly 60 percent of the worldwide total in 2022. Between 2021 and 2022, their sales grew by around 79 percent from 3.3 million vehicles to 5.9 million vehicles.
By comparison, the second largest market, Europe, which made up 25 percent of sales, witnessed growth of just 15 percent during this period. The US, which is ranked third in market share, saw transactions grow by 55 percent but accounted for only 8 percent of sales.
The current situation is a far cry from what the founder of Tesla Elon Musk had envisioned back in 2011 when he remarked in an interview that he did not see BYD as a serious competitor. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said, “Have you seen their cars? … I don’t think they have a great product.”
