The hordes of foreign executives returning this month to the Shanghai motor show after three years of Covid-19 restrictions were taken aback by the rapid advances made by Chinese carmakers in the interim. With scores of new Chinese electric vehicle models and battery technologies on display, the scale of the challenge to established players was there for all to see.
The world’s carmakers now face a “moment of truth”, said Fabian Brandt, a Munich-based industry consultant who had not been in China since late 2019. The country’s electric-vehicle manufacturers had demonstrated how they were extending their local dominance and would start taking on US and European companies on their home turfs.
China, already the world’s biggest market for electric vehicles, is set to knock Japan from the top spot for global car export volume this year after overtaking Germany in 2022.