Electric Vehicles

Flagship Inflation: The new battleground in China's hyper-competitive market

Philipp

Philipp

— 1 min read
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From 120,000 € to 40,000 €. From a barely existing segment to 30+ options.

This single chart says a lot about the transformation of the automotive industry and China's role as a driving force. And it illustrates, taking one segment as an example, why Western automakers are in a very difficult position in China:

  • These are flagship models, often with outstanding tech and luxury features, in a top-end segment. Chinese brands now have the technology, the quality, and the confidence to conquer it.
  • Right now, there are more than 30 SUVs in the over-5-meter range from Chinese OEMs or local joint ventures, not all of which are shown in the chart. Only five years ago, none of these models existed. Twelve of them (highlighted in red) were unveiled or launched in the context of the Beijing Auto Show just three weeks ago.
  • The price difference is striking. You could get two of the larger Zeekr 9X, Nio ES8, or XPeng GX full of the latest technology for the price of one Mercedes GLS.
  • While legacy OEMs are still offering their familiar pure-ICE cars (grey), all of the Chinese cars shown are NEVs, either BEVs or PHEV/REEVs designed for primarily electric driving.

You can find other observations from the recent Beijing Auto Show in my full article on it.

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