{"id":303864,"date":"2024-02-22T17:54:05","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=303864"},"modified":"2024-02-22T17:54:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T16:54:07","slug":"west-braces-for-chinas-electric-car-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=303864","title":{"rendered":"West braces for China\u2019s electric car shock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An EV invasion threatens to run European carmakers off the road.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The port of Vlissingen in the south-west of the Netherlands has been at the heart of world commerce for centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roughly 17,000 cargo ships dock in its deep waters between the North Sea and the river Scheldt every year, laden with everything from vital commodities such as paper, timber, and steel; coal, liquefied gases, fertiliser and other key raw materials; to well as fruit and vegetables that will quickly find their way onto supermarket shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, the harbour took delivery of one of its most significant consignments yet: 5,000 electric cars straight from a factory in Shenzhen, China, destined for forecourts across Europe and Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Telegraph<\/a> has the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Made by China\u2019s biggest car-maker BYD,<\/a> the shipment has the potential to turn rising international tensions into an explosive all-out trade war between Beijing and the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electric cars, along with lithium batteries and solar panels, are what President Xi Jinping has proclaimed are \u201cpillars of the economy\u201d: sectors that the Chinese government has chosen to be the drivers of a massive manufacturing export boom. Commerce minister Wang Wentao has described them as China\u2019s \u201cnew three\u201d industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s leaders are desperate to\u00a0offset a property slump<\/a>\u00a0triggered by the spectacular collapse of debt-laden developer Evergrande, which has crushed consumer confidence. Attempts by China\u2019s securities watchdog to prop up the nation\u2019s $8.6 trillion (\u00a36.8 trillion) stock market, by banning institutional investors from selling shares at the open and close of trading, shows how concerned officials are about consumer confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince China\u2019s reopening after the pandemic, industrial production has been quite strong but it has not got the domestic demand for that,\u201d says Duncan Wrigley of Pantheon Macroeconomics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHouseholds are reluctant to spend as much because they\u2019re concerned about the future. People worry that if they lose a job now they won\u2019t be able to get a replacement. That is contributing to the continued weakness in the property sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xi hopes that a state-backed manufacturing drive led by advanced goods and materials will power a fresh era of growth. But the prospect of China attempting to save its economy by flooding the West with cheap cars<\/a> has policymakers in Europe and America on red alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear in Brussels and Washington is that with domestic demand in the doldrums, China will seek to ease over-capacity by dumping its goods \u2013 selling them abroad at lower prices than at home \u2013 on international markets and trashing Western industry. With officials already threatening serious recriminations, and Beijing warning of counter-reprisals, trade tensions are once again dangerously high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As BYD\u2019s Explorer No.1 ship was making its way through the English Channel after a five-week voyage to the Zeeland archipelago where Vlissingen juts out, the boss of Renault waded into the row with a plea to Britain and Europe to work together<\/a> to resist what the industry fears will be an onslaught of super-cheap Chinese electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the internal combustion engine, our leadership was undisputed. For a century, we benefited from our expertise with this technology, and it was a barrier to entry for newcomers. Today, Europeans find themselves in a position of relative fragility,\u201d Luca de Meo, chief executive of the French carmaker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Meo and his counterparts are right to be concerned. By the second half of last year, the Chinese had captured about 10pc of the European electric vehicle market, according to Schmidt Automotive Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An invasion of Chinese cars promises to be great for Western consumers but terrible for carmakers in Europe. A typical Tesla can cost \u00a340,000, whereas BYD\u2019s models go for as little as \u00a38,000. Chinese carmakers are offering generous discounts of up to \u20ac12,000 to boost sales on the Continent, Schmidt\u2019s researchers found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even Elon Musk, the industry\u2019s original trailblazer and someone who once laughed at the suggestion that BYD could ever compete with Tesla, is running scared. Without trade barriers, Chinese players \u201cwill pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world\u201d, Musk said shortly after BYD toppled Tesla as the number one seller of electric models<\/a> in mainland China at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report by Bloomberg\u2019s New Energy Finance predicts that annual sales of electric vehicles will reach 56 million globally by 2040 \u2013 equivalent to 58pc of all cars sold around the world. It also believes China\u2019s share of the electric car market will be 40pc by the end of this decade, a forecast supported by the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Made by China\u2019s biggest car-maker BYD,\u00a0the shipment has the potential to turn rising international tensions into an explosive all-out trade war between Beijing and the West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":303870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Made by China\u2019s biggest car-maker BYD,\u00a0the shipment has the potential to turn rising international tensions into an explosive all-out trade war between Beijing and the West.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691827106,691820950,691818341,691821977,691827107,691827105],"class_list":{"0":"post-303864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bankrupt-eu-companies","9":"tag-byd","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-electric-vehicles-evs","12":"tag-invasion-of-chinese-cars","13":"tag-super-cheap-evs","15":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/00Screenshot-2024-02-22-175223.png?fit=1172%2C591&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1h32","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":240634,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=240634","url_meta":{"origin":303864,"position":0},"title":"The real winners of Net Zero: China\u2019s cheap EVs will swamp Europe\u2019s car market","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Chinese carmaking giant BYD Co. will start selling vehicles this quarter in the UK, where electric cars are seizing a growing share of the market. 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That\u2019s What Trump Cost Detroit.\u201d The thesis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bill Saporito\"","block_context":{"text":"Bill Saporito","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bill-saporito"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMLzuNE70UHohJzPmKJvGLab0BqlQ5GYJpVHcXmqSuDzzsP9NQ526ToFcK1APU5TkXGs3lsErcIcIyC6SM_XRhqxczl00laPntleeaXeS0dCGc_XVUpFDSUXaTFTyAKrGII_vmqs1175J0MKpYoGjepD6gehA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMLzuNE70UHohJzPmKJvGLab0BqlQ5GYJpVHcXmqSuDzzsP9NQ526ToFcK1APU5TkXGs3lsErcIcIyC6SM_XRhqxczl00laPntleeaXeS0dCGc_XVUpFDSUXaTFTyAKrGII_vmqs1175J0MKpYoGjepD6gehA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMLzuNE70UHohJzPmKJvGLab0BqlQ5GYJpVHcXmqSuDzzsP9NQ526ToFcK1APU5TkXGs3lsErcIcIyC6SM_XRhqxczl00laPntleeaXeS0dCGc_XVUpFDSUXaTFTyAKrGII_vmqs1175J0MKpYoGjepD6gehA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMLzuNE70UHohJzPmKJvGLab0BqlQ5GYJpVHcXmqSuDzzsP9NQ526ToFcK1APU5TkXGs3lsErcIcIyC6SM_XRhqxczl00laPntleeaXeS0dCGc_XVUpFDSUXaTFTyAKrGII_vmqs1175J0MKpYoGjepD6gehA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AQMLzuNE70UHohJzPmKJvGLab0BqlQ5GYJpVHcXmqSuDzzsP9NQ526ToFcK1APU5TkXGs3lsErcIcIyC6SM_XRhqxczl00laPntleeaXeS0dCGc_XVUpFDSUXaTFTyAKrGII_vmqs1175J0MKpYoGjepD6gehA.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":270270,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=270270","url_meta":{"origin":303864,"position":3},"title":"Why I\u2019ll be buying a brand new petrol car just before the 2030 ban \u2013 Matt\u00a0Ridley","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Most electric car batteries are made in China, and it has made a huge investment around the world in lithium and other minerals. 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