The Chinese EVs That Have Been a Long Time Coming… Well, They’re Here!

What you see on the cover of November 2024 of the autoX Magazine is a glimpse of our annual mega-test. Other than merely whittling this list of 50-odd vehicles down to the top-ten machines launched in the past year, what our annual mega test enables us to do is put our ear to the ground and get a real sense of which direction the winds are blowing in. Well, all signs point to it being a gust from the East!

Spoiler alert – there are two Chinese EVs in our top-five cars of 2024. And the reason for that is very clear – they really are that good, and they really do provide class-leading value. That China is a powerhouse in EVs is not a new phenomenon, but just how much of a powerhouse is worth considering. How about the fact that 70% of the world’s EVs are made in China? Or consider the fact that there are almost 350 registered EV makers in China. But only one of them is profitable – BYD! And, yes, one of the two EVs in our top-five is a BYD.

In Q4 of 2023, BYD overtook Tesla to become the largest EV manufacturer in the world. And in Q3 of 2024, BYD overtook Tesla in revenue for the first time. After all, BYD is the only truly vertically integrated EV manufacturer in the world today – producing its own batteries, motors, and chips. In fact, its proprietary blade batteries are perhaps the most advanced and safest battery packs around – so much so that even Tesla sources batteries for its Model Y from BYD.

Elon Musk did warn the world that it wouldn’t be the establishment that would pose a threat to his EV supremacy, but the real threat would come from China. That the traditional automakers are floundering is also not a revelation.

VW has spent the past several years developing its own EVs, but they’re simply not on par with the Chinese competition. So, VW is adopting Chinese EV platforms for its next generation of EVs – at least in China to start with. In the meantime, the German giant is planning to close three plants in its home market. Porsche, meanwhile, is talking about giving its new EV platforms ICE powertrains because of how dismal their EV sales have been of late. Across the pond, in the US, Ford is losing money on every EV sold and doesn’t expect to make a profit till 2027. The CEO of Ford, Jim Farley, even admitted to a Xiaomi SU7 being his current daily driver – presumably his way of checking out the competition. You know the world order has changed when the CEO of the car company that invented the assembly line is dailying a car made by a Chinese cell phone manufacturer.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the thaw at our Northern border may mean Chinese EV investment, which has been on ice in India thus far, may be a little closer to getting the green light. Politics aside, if the BYD Seal and MG Windsor are anything to go by, the emergence of the Chinese EV means that Indian car buyers are getting an up close and personal look at what Jim Farley and his colleagues have found – that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compete with Chinese EVs.