China’s booming electric vehicle industry is forecast to further cement its global dominance this year, shrugging off US and European efforts to catch up and posing a threat to foreign groups reliant on the world’s biggest car market.
Chinese consumers will buy about 8mn to 10mn EVs in 2023, up from record sales of 6.5mn vehicles last year and 3.5mn in 2021, according to company and analyst forecasts. This compares with nearly 3mn in Europe and 2mn in the US.
“China is expected to have the largest overall sales with 35 per cent year-on-year growth in 2023, after two years of extremely rapid growth?[?.?.?.?] To put this in perspective seven out of every 10 electric vehicles are now sold in China,” said Neil Beveridge, an analyst with Bernstein in Hong Kong.