Image Credit: BYD
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China has rapidly electrified its auto market, which is by far the largest auto market in the world. The country accounts for about half of the world’s electric vehicle sales, and 63% of the country’s auto sales were plugin vehicles last month.
As the market has ramped up and gotten to completely unmatched volumes, it has driven down per-unit costs. Additionally, fighting for market share and continued growth, the whole industry got into an EV price war last year.
As a result of all of the above, Chinese EVs have gotten much cheaper than EVs developed and produced in other regions. Like all other big auto countries, China and its state governments have supported the auto industry in various ways. As a response to the threat of cheap Chinese EVs wiping out a big portion of the European auto industry, and using the argument that Chinese EVs were too heavily subsidized by the government, the European Union (EU) put high tariffs on EVs produced in China last year.
