Chinese automakers are stepping up their challenge to Tesla’s dominance in the country’s electric vehicle market, using the Shanghai Motor Show this week to showcase a variety of new models and technology designed to attract younger shoppers.
The groups are launching more than a dozen models in the Motor Show, Which opened yesterday, in its attempt to overcome the sedan of Tesla, The Model 3, as the country’s best-selling electric car and capture market share in the listed sector premium.
Surveys suggest that Chinese brands are becoming increasingly popular with younger customers who are more likely to buy domestic models, with leading groups such as Geely, Nio i Xpeng, Who use technology to attract interest.
William Li, Nio’s CEO, announced plans to expand its battery exchange network and charging stations in the less-served regions of northern China.
The leading national brand in the luxury electric car industry for sales of China focuses on the development of battery exchange technology that he discarded Tesla.
He also made the subscription model for battery usage central to his business model. The company signed an agreement last week with Sinopec, The state oil group, to install 5,000 exchange and cargo stations across the country over the next few years.
Xpeng, A startup listed on Nasdaq and headquartered in Guangzhou, Last month boasted its sensor-powered autonomous driving functions lidar, Which work according to the radar principle, but use the light of a laser to measure distances. The dependence on lidar it is another approach he rejected Tesla.
Other Chinese automotive groups similarly adopted the technology: Arcfox, A new luxury brand created by a subsidiary of the state-owned management company Motor Baic and the technology group Huawei, For example, yesterday launched their first model, the Alpha S.
In the meantime, Zeekr, A brand of electric cars premium which he launched last month Geely Holdings, Owners of Volvo, Lotus and has a minority stake in Daimler, is aimed primarily at younger customers who value technology and new experience, according to Flynn Chen, Its vice president.
The company plans to launch two models a year in the next three using a network of more than 100 stores that will open in China this year.
Automotive groups that offer smart features, such as driving assistance or voice-activated entertainment systems, help drive interest in high-end Chinese brands in the face of international competition, according to Zhang Xiang, An independent industry analyst.
Measures should help China in its ambition to make battery-powered or hybrid-powered vehicles account for one-fifth of car purchases in the world’s largest market today of 5 percent of total sales, mostly as the industry goes begin to mature in the last year.
It is now fueled more by consumer purchases of larger and more expensive cars than by smaller subsidized vehicles, a change that was partly boosted by the success of Tesla by gaining Chinese consumers and also by the growing interest in rival startups in the country as Nio i Xpeng.
Also, it may be the right time to challenge the pioneer of U.S. electric cars as it faces a series of controversies after the deaths of two men in a Tesla Model S a Jo the weekend. The men were injured and there is evidence to suggest that no one was driving the vehicle, although reports indicated it was unclear if the autopilot was in operation.
There was a protest at the stand of Tesla of the Automobile Room of a woman wearing a white T-shirt that said “malfunction on the brakes” on a logo of Tesla. The firm responded to the incident on Weibo, the bloggers website, saying the woman was a customer who had asked to return a car after an accident in February, but refused to allow a third-party investigation.
In addition to Tesla, Chinese groups will also have to contend with competition from major German automakers –Audi, Mercedes–Benz i BMW-, which have long dominated their luxury car market. In 2020, the three German brands together sold more than 700,000 cars in China, A record.
However, switching from internal combustion engines to battery-powered cars can create opportunities to establish Chinese brands that appeal to the country’s under-35s, who account for a higher proportion of luxury purchases than in other markets.
Nearly half of Chinese buyers intending to buy a car in the next six months said they would buy a local brand, compared to a fifth in 2016, according to a JD Power survey released last month. .
Younger shoppers are more likely to buy local models; 60 percent of people who were born after 1995 say they would like to buy a national brand.
German brands selling cars with traditional internal combustion engines have earned a reputation for decades, but when it comes to the new world of electric cars “everyone is on the same starting line,” he said. Leo Li, Partner of Oliver Wyman a Shanghai.
“No one has an advantage in terms of history and many Chinese startups started with global prospects and built international teams,” he noted. Wyman.
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