Tag Archives: Western Europe

Chinese Cars in Europe

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By Gary S. Vasilash

Although some people are on pins and needles and potential massive tariffs regarding Chinese vehicles coming to America, in Europe, where there is active concern on behalf of some of the OEMs on that subject, things are really not all that whelming, over- or otherwise. At least not yet.

According to Schmidt Automotive Research, during January and February, the shares of the Western European market are:

  • 13.3% Japanese OEMs
  • 7.8% Korean OEMs
  • 2.9% Chinese OEMs

However. . .

When looked at from the point of battery electric vehicles, the “Chinese model volumes combined share was 3x as large.”

So clearly Chinese OEMs are gaining some traction in the Western European market when it comes to that tech.

One interesting aspect of the penetration of Chinese vehicles of all powertrain types there is which country is most interested in acquiring them:

Italy.

Of the ~52,000 Chinese vehicles sold during the first two months, Italy took some 12,000 of them.

Which probably doesn’t make the folks at Fiat feel good.

Western Europe, China and EVs

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Although there was a seeming step-by-step, vehicle-by-vehicle increase in the under of Chinese battery electric vehicles registered in Western Europe last year, there was a bit of a stumble at the end, and Schmidt Automotive Research wonders whether there will be a cap of under 10% of the EV market in Western Europe for the Sino mobiles.

(Image: Schmidt Automotive Research)

As the chart shows, there was a noticeable decline in registrations in Q4. . .but then there are some reasons why this could be the case, including the increase in the amount of time it takes to ship vehicles from China to Europe while avoiding the Red Sea.

But the Schmidt study also points out some brands are offering discounts of up to €12,000, so you’d imagine that European consumers would be most interested in savings like that. . .especially as there may be higher import tariffs applied to Chinese vehicles coming into Europe this year.

Still, the fact that the Chinese OEMs have managed to gain that much of the European market in a comparatively short period of time says something about the appeal of their products.