China’s dominance in electric cars consolidates: BYD surpasses Tesla, CATL dominates battery production and Europe struggles.
While others were wondering whether to abandon the internal combustion engine, Chinese companies have quietly built a manufacturing ecosystem that now dominates the electric car market.
At the top we still find Tesla but with BYD that is following it ever closer, now ready to definitively overtake it. Which, on the financial front, has already happened: the Chinese giant closed 2024 with a record turnover of 99 billion euros, surpassing the 90 billion of Elon Musk’s company.
The most impressive data, however, still concerns the overall presence: Among the top ten global producers, five are Chinese companies, almost all of which are growing strongly.
Geely, third place, recorded a +58%. Changan marked a +43%, while other companies such as Nio, Leapmotor e Xpeng are growing at a sustained pace. Only Gac shows a 20% decline, the only exception in an otherwise triumphant panorama.
CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited) dominates the global market with a share exceeding 38%, followed by another Chinese company, the aforementioned BYD, which holds almost 17%.
Together, these two companies control more than half of the global electric vehicle battery market. South Korean LG Energy Solution defends itself with an honorable third place (9,8% share).
As with other sectors, this supremacy is not the result of chance, but of a very specific strategy. China has invested heavily in the sector, considering it strategic both to reduce dependence on oil imports and to improve air quality in cities. The government has offered generous subsidies to producers and buyers, investing over $230 billion between 2009 and 2023 to support China’s electric car industry.
The infrastructure that makes the difference
While others are still debating how to implement charging networks, China has already built over 8,5 million public charging points, more than the rest of the world combined. This has eliminated one of the main obstacles to the mass adoption of electric vehicles: range anxiety.
Furthermore, continuous innovation has led to impressive advances in charging times as well. BYD recently introduced a technology capable of charging an electric vehicle in just five minutes, twice as fast as latest generation Superchargers.
The consequences for Western industry
The growing Chinese dominance is putting other producers in serious difficulty. BYD has almost doubled its sales in the old continent (+94%).
China has show been able to gain leadership in strategic sectors.
