Chinese manufacturers are using the electric transition to seize market share, with the UK as their gateway
W
hen Tesla wanted to catch the eye of British buyers, it put its cars and bright signage at a dealership in west London’s prominent Hogarth roundabout. Exposure to half a million drivers every day helped the US carmaker to become the dominant electric vehicle seller in the UK. Yet drivers passing by that site now see something different: twin Chinese brands Omoda and Jaecoo, both owned by the state-controlled manufacturer Chery.
Chinese cars are on a roll across Europe – they outsold Korean rivals in western Europe for the first time in September. That success is highly reliant on the UK. Of the half a million Chinese cars sold in western Europe between January and September, 30% were bought by Britons, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst.
“Their success has been remarkable,” says Steve Young, the managing director of the Hogarth dealership, which is owned by Turkish group Çetaş Otomotiv. “The site that we have here makes a statement. It’s a flag waver for us. Every minute or so the traffic lights change, and drivers are stuck outside our window.”
