MONA L03. Image Credit: XPENG
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In the second half of 2026, a whopping 156 new electric vehicle models are expected to hit the Chinese auto market. Thinking from the perspective of an American looking at the US auto market, we don’t even have 156 EV models in total! It’s truly unfathomable the amount of choice and innovation that’s going on in the Chinese EV market.
There are concerns as well. Chinese automakers have been involved in an intense price war for the past couple of years. It has gotten a bit better since the Chinese government put new regulations in place that made automakers pay their suppliers within a certain window of time and that made it illegal to sell a vehicle for less than it cost to make it (a practice used around the world to move old product). Nonetheless, it’s still a cutthroat market, and surviving there often means cutting prices in addition to rolling out new products and features.
Also of note is that traditional, legacy automakers from the West are being al but chased out of the market. Whereas they used to be able to roll into China and live on their cachet, selling tons of vehicles in a fast growing and giant market, they are now unable to keep up, out of date, and losing sales fast. This is one key reason Volkswagen Group is in a crisis and planning to shutter four factories and lay off 100,000 employees.
