Chinese car groups are taking up their challenge to increase Tesla’s dominance in the country’s electric vehicle market, using the Shanghai Auto Show this week to showcase a variety of new models and technology designed to appeal to younger customers.
The groups are launching more than a dozen models in the Auto exhibition hall, which opened yesterday, in its bid to outperform the Tesla, the Model 3, as the best-selling electric car in the country, capturing market share in the listed sector premium.
Surveys show that Chinese brands are increasingly popular with younger customers who are more likely to buy domestic models, from leading groups such as Geely, Nio Y Xpeng, using technology to generate interest.
William Li, CEO of Nio, announced plans to expand its network of battery changing and charging stations in the less-served regions of northern China.
The leading national brand in the luxury electric vehicle industry by selling China focuses on the development of battery exchange technology that is disposed of Tesla.
It has also placed the battery usage subscription model at the heart of its business model. The company signed an agreement last week with Sinopec, the state oil group, to install 5,000 transfer and charging stations across the country in the coming years.
Xpeng, a Nasdaq-listed startup based in Guangzhou, showed its sensor-powered autonomous driving functions last month lidar, which work on the radar principle, but use laser light to measure distances. Dependent on lidar is another approach that was rejected Tesla.
Other Chinese car groups have also adopted the technology: Arcfox, a new luxury brand created by a subsidiary of the state management company Baic motor and the technology group HuaweiFor example, yesterday they launched their first model, the Alpha S.
In the meantime, Zeekr, a brand of electric cars premium launched last month Geely Holdings, owner of Volvo, Lotus and has a minority stake in Daimler, primarily targeting younger customers who value technology and new expertise, said Flynn Chen, your vice president.
The company plans to launch two models per year over the next three years using a network of more than 100 stores operating in China this year.
Car groups that offer smart functions, such as driver assistance systems or voice-activated entertainment systems, help according to Zhang Xiang, an independent industry analyst.
The measures must help China in its ambition to make battery or hybrid powered vehicles account for one fifth of car purchases in the world’s largest market from the current 5 percent of total sales, especially as the industry matured into the last year.
It is now fueled more by consumer purchases of larger and more expensive cars than by smaller subsidized vehicles, a shift fueled in part by the success of Tesla in winning over Chinese consumers and also because of the growing interest in rival startups in the country such as Nio Y Xpeng.
In addition, it may be the right time to challenge the American electric car pioneer as he faces a series of controversies following the deaths of two men in one. Tesla Model S. On ME weekend. The men had an accident and there is evidence that no one was driving the vehicle, although reports indicated it was unclear whether the autopilot was working.
There was a protest at the booth Tesla from the auto show of a woman wearing a white T-shirt with the text “defective brake” over a logo of Tesla. The company responded to the incident on Weibo, the blogger website, saying that the woman was a customer who asked for a car to be returned after an accident in February, but declined to allow a third-party investigation.
In addition to TeslaChinese groups will also face competition from major German car manufacturers –Audi, Mercedes–Benz Y BMW-, which have long dominated the luxury car market. In 2020, the three German brands together sold more than 700,000 cars China, a recording.
However, the shift from internal combustion engines to battery-powered cars could create opportunities to establish Chinese brands that appeal to the under-35s, who have a higher share of luxury purchases than in other markets.
Nearly half of Chinese buyers who plan to buy a car in the next six months said they would buy a local brand, compared to a fifth in 2016, according to a JD Power survey released last month.
Younger buyers are more likely to buy local models; 60 percent of people born after 1995 say they would like to buy a national brand.
German brands selling cars with traditional combustion engines have built a reputation for decades, but when it comes to the new world of electric cars, “everyone is on the same starting line,” he said. Leo Li, Oliver Wyman’s partner in Shanghai.
“No one is ahead in history and many Chinese startups have started with global perspectives and built international teams,” he noted. Wyman.