Volkswagen Group and some other global car manufacturers are losing their market share in China as they find themselves unable to compete with the likes of BYD Group, Bloomberg reports. The main reason? Not enough cheap EVs in lineups.
In the second quarter of the year, BYD has sold around 595,300 plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles on its domestic market (the marque has no cars with other powertrain types on sale). This let it occupy an 11.2-percent share of the market. In comparison, VW has only found buyers for 544,000 cars in total, including just 23,400 EVs.
The German automotive giant has occupied the leading position on the China market since at least the year 2008. However, BYD has managed to grow so rapidly over the past year and a half that it dethroned VW in late 2022 – early 2023. Even Tesla ranked second after BYD in terms of EV sales in China.
In June, sales of plug-in hybrids and battery-electric cars rose to roughly 736,000 units, which corresponds to nearly 20% of the market. The demand has skyrocketed by 25% in a single year.
Experts tend to agree that the traditional carmakers are struggling in China because they lack truly affordable and technologically modern EVs in their portfolios. For example, the BYD Seagull is a modern electric car that offers over 300 km (186 miles) of range per charge for as little as 73,800 CNY (10,300 USD). Beating that offer can be hard without substantial investment in R&D.