A growing number leading to growing concern. . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

While you’ve undoubtedly heard about some of the people in the European Union (EU) being rather agitated by Chinese electric vehicles showing up on the streets of Rome and Paris and elsewhere, French research firm Inovev provides some interesting statistics regarding those vehicles.

Notably, within the EU, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Norway, during the first quarter of 2024 Chinese EVs accounted for 8.5% of all the EVs sold during that period—approximately 50,000 out of 594,000 EVs.

But then there’s more.

For example, taking into account “European models imported from China”—as in Smart (a joint venture between Mercedes and Geely) and Dacia (part of Renault)—that 8.5% share grows to about 11%.

Then there are vehicles that are built in China by non-Chinese brands that are brought in, like the BMW iX3 and the Tesla Model 3.

Add them into the mix and the number rises to 17%.

And while some might think that European exports to China might offset some of this, Inovev, using Germany as an example, points out that German vehicle exports to China peaked in 2018 and have been declining since.

Part of this is because German brands are building vehicles in China that are sold there so there is no need to export.

But then there is this observation, which ought to make people in Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and Munich nervous: “Chinese customers are increasingly moving towards Chinese brand cars and are gradually losing interest in imported foreign cars, especially with the development of the BEV market.”