Toyota, GM, VW, BMW Others To Lose In China As Gas Car Age Is Ending
China is the world's largest auto market and a key market for EVs. Many brands have been slow to embrace EVs, and it stands to haunt them.
The global automotive industry is moving more quickly from gas to electric vehicles, but it's still far away. In China, however, automakers and consumers alike are adopting EVs. It's been that way for years. But it looks like things are about to change dramatically. Volkswagen, the largest automaker in the world, could lose up to 7% of its market share in China. Greenpeace predicts that BYD's market share in China will increase by 4 to 5 percent over the same time period. BYD alone sold 1.8 millions low- and zero emission vehicles in 2022. Many of the cars were plug-in hybrids, which have a gas motor, but BYD has decided to stop producing PHEVs and replace them with BEVs.
In China, 31% (of all sales) of cars in the first quarter 2023 were electric. This is a 3% increase over the previous year and more than twice the number of electric cars sold in the same quarter last 2021. More than 80% of these sales were by Chinese automakers. It also produces and sells cars in China. However, its local factory also manufactures many EVs to be exported. Can we safely say that the future of automobiles will be electric? This is certainly the case, especially in China which is leading the way for the rest.