SHANGHAI: Chinese and global automakers plan to unveil more than a dozen new electric SUVs, sedans, and muscle cars this week at the Shanghai auto show, the first full-scale sales event in four years in a market that has become a workshop for developing electrics, self-driving cars, and other technology.
In the largest and most congested market for electric vehicles, automakers are competing to release quicker, more luxurious, and feature-rich automobiles. The ruling Communist Party has spent billions of dollars in subsidies to gain an early advantage in a new industry. Chinese rivals are putting pressure on established global brands.
For the first time since 2019, executives are flying in from the United States, Europe, and Japan for the world’s largest auto show, following the lifting of anti-virus restrictions that had prevented most travel into China in December. During the epidemic, auto shows in the industry’s largest market continued, although on a lower scale. Their employees in China represented worldwide brands.
Last year, drivers in the world’s largest auto market purchased 5.4 million pure-electric vehicles, or around two-thirds of the global total of 8 million, as well as 1.5 million gasoline-electric hybrids. This accounted for more than a fifth of total auto sales of 23.6 million. EV sales are expected to increase by another 30% this year.
“Consumers have lost interest in gasoline-powered vehicles.” That is the most difficult barrier for foreign brands competing in China,” said LMC Automotive analyst John Zeng. “They are going to have to show their best EV products.”
Beijing is reducing government assistance while shifting the burden to manufacturers by requiring them to earn credits for EV sales. Manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in developing cars that can compete on price and features without relying on government subsidies.
Many people are establishing partnerships to share the burden of rising expenditures.
Auto Shanghai 2023 takes over the vast Shanghai Exhibition Centre, a 1.5 million-square-meter (16 million-square-foot) landmass that is one of the world’s largest.
Volkswagen AG, the country’s best-selling brand, says it will show 28 vehicles, half of which will be electric. VW plans to unveil the ID.7 limousine, which will have a range of 700 kilometres on a single charge.
China’s BYD Auto, which competes with Tesla Inc. for the title of the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles, says it will debut its U9 supercar from its luxury Yangwang brand for the first time. The U9 costs one million yuan ($145,000) and is said to speed from zero to 100 kph (60 mph) in two neck-straining seconds.
China’s vehicle sales peaked in 2017 at 24.7 million but fell to 20.2 million in 2020 due to dealership closures as part of COVID-19 containment efforts. They are recovering but have not yet returned.
