Electric Cars From China Are Filling European Streets

Chinese EVs from Xpeng, BYD, and MG are common sights on the streets of Oslo, Norway. This article comes to us courtesy of  EVANNEX , which ...

Chinese EVs from Xpeng, BYD, and MG are common sights on the streets of Oslo, Norway.

This article comes to us courtesy of EVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid by EVANNEX to publish these articles. We find the company's perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!

Posted on EVANNEX on January 31, 2023, by Charles Morris

Chinese electric vehicles are making their way into European markets at large. Xpeng announced its first deliveries to Norway in October 2020. Around the same time, John Voelcker, a seasoned auto reviewer, drove the company’s P7 electric sedan, and pronounced it pretty darn good—it had “perhaps 75 percent of the features and capability of a Tesla,” and at the time, carried about 50 percent of the price tag. (That may no longer be the case, thanks to Tesla’s recent price cuts, but the Chinese brands’ prices are still tempting.)

Above: Tesla competitor Xpeng Motors' future delivery center in Europe. (Image: Xpeng Motors)

Two years later, Chinese EVs from Xpeng, BYD and MG are common sights on the streets of Oslo (to say nothing of models from Volvo and Polestar, both owned by Chinese firm Geely).

As every China-watcher knows, the country’s strong push into electrification is not just about cleaning up choking air pollution—it’s also about muscling into the global auto industry. China has been building decent cars for many years, but most buyers, including Chinese ones, seem to prefer more prestigious brands such as Mercedes and BMW (and, for obscure reasons, Buick). However, as they watched Western automakers being dragged kicking and screaming into the electric era, Chinese industrialists saw an opportunity, and they seized it.

A Chinese car may never have the pizzazz of a Porsche or the trendiness of a Tesla, but there are a few billion buyers down there in the budget segments, which Western EV-makers are still mostly ignoring. Lunch is on the table, and who will eat it?