China Dominates World Electric Car Market: How Do They Do It?

Ora Funky Cat. (GWM Ora)

JAKARTA - Currently, automotive manufacturers from China are flooding the global market with affordable electric vehicles. This phenomenon may make them curious, how they can offer cheaper prices than their competitors.

As reported by Reuters, Friday, September 15, this is the result of incentive policies and industrial subsidies implemented in Beijing over the past decade. This policy has made China the largest electric vehicle market in the world today.

Not only controlling the market, but China also has the potential to take over global supply chains for electric vehicles, including components in them. Thanks to the lower production costs and strong supply chains, China is capable of becoming a major player in the industry.

This policy has also driven the development of heavy industries such as the world's largest EV battery manufacturing, as CATL does. Chinese automotive companies such as BYD have even succeeded in displacing foreign brand dominance such as Volkswagen, becoming the best-selling car brand in China this year.

The ease of cost and superior supply chains has also attracted the interest of many foreign companies to produce cars in China. For example, Tesla has assembled more than 700,000 units of cars there by 2022, equivalent to half of their total production in the US. Other foreign companies such as Renault and BMW have also started production of vehicles in China.

Interestingly, China's initiative in the field of electric vehicles began in 2001, when the government included it as a priority science research project in plans for the next five years. This demonstrates China's commitment to developing this technology from the start.

In 2007, an automotive engineer named Wan Gang, who worked for Audi for a decade, became Chinese Minister of Science and Technology. Wan is a big fan of electric vehicles and even tested the Tesla Roadster model at its 2008 launch. In a clear direction at this time, the Chinese people constantly praise Wan for having taken the national decision to fully implement environmentally friendly mobility.