THIS Is Why The Wave of Chinese EVs Is Unstoppable!
Competition to make Australia’s cheapest electric vehicle is heating up this is the byd dolphin an electric hatchback from China the stats for 2023 are in and EVS are going gang busters in Australia with our biggest year on record for Ev sales our percentage of new cars sold was
Around 7% for fully electric double what it was last year and there is something very interesting happening right now in our light vehicle sector overall seemingly overnight China has become an Automotive Behemoth and is now number three exporter of cars to Australia behind Japan and Thailand and in this
Episode I’m going to explore why we are seeing so many arri on our Shores what has made them so appealing to Australian consumers what else is coming and could Australia ever see the day where we start up EV manufacturing ourselves like fully charged you’ll love our fun-packed everything electric Expos
Around the world next up austal Australia and London remember energy and transport professionals Go free on the first day it’s now apparent that Chinese EVS are shaping the landscape of Australia’s electric vehicle transition take for example The Runaway success of byd which only entered into our market around 18
Months ago and has already reached the top three of EV sales when we look at the Australian top 10 EV sales list for 2023 we see BDS Teslas MGS po stars and Volvos which are all built in China and in addition to those in the top 10 we
Also see very decent EVS from Chinese Brands gwm and LDV on my quest to understand the unprecedented domination of Chinese made vehicles in the Australian EV space I had a chat with some of my connections in the no it’s really down to two main things the first piece being what’s happening
In China in Chinese manufacturing and the sort of products that they’re creating here and then the second part which is what has been happening in Australia and the nature of our vehicle market so I think the two of those in combination I mean just what’s been
Happening in China by itself is a really huge presence already but the two of those in combination really has put us in a you know a perfect storm of events to allow for a new entrance and in this case that being an entire country’s manufacturing base but also the brands
That are you know coming out of China whether it’s as you mentioned brands from overseas manufacturing there being able to reduce costs increase their scale being closer to Australia so being able to ship to Australia from there and and what is it the Chinese Brads are doing they’re bringing in Superior
Products that are latest generation of technology or products very good you know very high quality products at much lower prices than than their competition so where did this all begin how did China become an EV superpower to answer this question I spoke to our fully charge Show correspondent in China the very knowledgeable
Elliot I remember discussing this previously uh with Robert and what happened was Thatcher and rean they offshored everything um all production overseas because they wanted to service economy move away from a manufacturing economy basically from that point onwards um whilst you know the West has made huge amounts of profit we’ve lost
You know skills and knowledge in building things and so China’s obviously taken that up in a huge way you know everything’s made there but the biggest shift happened in 2015 with the made in China 2025 policy so they they thought well we’re not going to ever compete with internal combustion engines you
Know we’re a hundred years behind the West with that technology so let’s go to EVS it’s a new industry maybe we can become experts in that and basically from that point is the whole Focus from China and the industry in China has been on growing um EVs and they’ve been so
Vertically integrated now that you know everything is just made domestically from the batteries to you know LEDs to chips it’s all made all made here so keeping it within China makes it very competitive and really drives down the Price so low cost is one app but that can’t be the whole story what makes the Chinese made EVS stand out from the crowd and in particular what features have allowed them to Leap Frog the EVS from the Legacy automakers and storm to the top of the sales charts here and around the
World traditional Legacy automakers they’re much more about the the driving experience and how it makes you feel the the Chinese cars are much more around the technology how it can benefit your life in terms of you know it will park the car for you it will you know do a
Lot of Auto driving you can talk to the car and it will open your boot or close the door or turn on your air conditioning without having to use your hands so it’s much more integrated into your life and your family life it’s not so much about the driver it’s about
Everyone’s experience in the cabin and then they’re doing that at a much cheaper price point which then obviously helps with with sales and adoption the tech coming out of China’s EVS is very impressive in fact extremely impressive and perhaps that’s the best word extreme sometimes it can feel a little too smart
We’re talking features like voice commands fatigue detection self-driving capability and sometimes intrusive commentary from the car along your journey but you got to love the Battery tech as seen with byd’s blade battery offering increased efficiency and safety I do think there’s maybe a little bit too much technology too too screen
Oriented in China and I think they have to find that balance with a more you know western or audience so I guess that and that was sort of another question I had about the subtle differences between Chinese manufactured EVs and and Chinese owned EBS are they the kind of
Differences that you’re talking about just in terms of the tech yeah so you know if I look at like so you say Chinese owned EV so that would be like the poar uh if you look at postar in China they haven’t sold very well at all
In fact I think you can safely say they’ve been a sales disaster there’s barely any on this on the roads because they’re seen as two European um and I think the Chinese produced cars they just offer another level of luxury you know and refinement you know in terms of materials the drive
That perhaps um a legacy automaker just can’t quite get at that same price point I look at someone like you know Mercedes they make electric Mercedes in China you know they’re very good but they’re extremely expensive whereas a domestically made EV can do this exactly the same with probably better technology
Better updates for about a third of the price and PE and it just shows you how little brand loyalty lasts you know people pivot very very easily and very quickly if they don’t offer what they want loyalty schoy we Aussies love a bargain and more than that we hate being
Overlooked or even ripped off so let that be a warning Legacy automakers when we aren’t prioritized as a market we will welcome brands that do see us as important and they will reap the Hefty rewards a brand that has seen incredible success here in Australia is byd entering the market at around
$448,000 this AT3 is now the third top selling EV for 2023 behind the Tesla Model Y and model 3 and in December it was joined in the top 10 list by its Sleek siblings the dolphin and the seal in 2023 3 byd sold almost 1.6 million
EVs and in Q4 overtook Tesla to become the biggest supplyer of EVS to the world the low cost and availability of these Chinese made EVS have been a game Cher for Ev uptake in Australia for a while now we’ve been pretty limited as to the number of models that we’ve had
Available to purchase and the reason is Supply so while Australia continues to lack strong fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles automakers prioritize other markets sending their clean vehicles over to other parts of the world that do have these standards in place leaving us with the crumbs which
Is insufficient numbers of EVS to meet demand and a whole lot of petrol and Diesel models to boot which has led me to speculate just how much is having these Chinese EV models available here speeding up Australia’s EV transition it’s been absolutely Siz miic to dat um but also importantly in terms
Of where we’re going from here as well so as know cheaper I should say more affordable because they’re not cheaper they’re still very premium products that are much more affordable uh come out of China that also starts setting the prices for a lot of other products so
You know quite often you know the the car that you’re buying from another brands that price gets sent set against its competitors and when you start to see well there certain products that can do you know 450 km in range has all of the you know five star sa safety rating
Has all the features that you would expect comes in at $39,000 it makes it much harder for somebody to try to bring that product in at $70,000 for instance right and I can sort of think of you know a couple of Brands who have bought in products at
Around a $70,000 price range and you look at that and go how on Earth can you justify thinking this is a $70,000 product um in the past that’s because been because of a lack of competition that’s absolutely gone away now that competition is quite Fierce and you have
To bring things in they have to be good products and you have to bring them in quite at quite competitive price as Australia’s EV demand SES having a choice of different models to meet our individual needs is going to be necessary to keep that momentum going so
I want to know what’s coming next to Australia so I think for an indication of what is likely to come in the next uh 18 months to two years look at the market in Thailand so that’s a good indication of you know what you will get
Next in terms of Brands which I think should do well and should come to Australia so the first one you said pickups and Utes so one is radar uh we drove a radar uh I think late last year they’re from gie and that’s their pickup brand uh you
Know it’s very practical it was inexpensive it had decent range good technology and I think it would do very well and another another one which I think is probably quite uh important is uh a car with 800 volt architecture and a car which appeals to the kind of
Holden Ford crowd one that’s coming is the GAC uh they’ve got the ion uh brand and they’ve got loads of really cool cars but they’ve got extreme fast charging with the 800 volt architecture they got really good looking cool fast cars I think they’re likely to come next year
And I think they’ll also disrupt the market in a big way Elliot’s predictions make just be spot on Word on the Street totally unconfirmed of course is that over the next 12 months there may be the emergence of Brands Aon zika and Cherry in the EV space radar and Neo have also
Made moves to launch here but it seems that some pesky trademark issues are slowing things down so watch this space so often I’ll watch one of Elliot’s reviews and wonder will we ever get that here so I wanted to find out what factors limit the brands that enter into our
Market Australia does have some specific uh design rules so for instance it’s easier to decide to expand to New Zealand because in New Zealand you can homologate your vehicles for instance to the UK or I think other places in Europe as well to the UK for your right-and
Drive products um and then just meet that certification to be able to sell cars in New Zealand um whereas in Australia you have to build to an Australian standard obviously Brandon perception of of Chinese cars is a huge barrier oh it’s Chinese it’s obviously not very well made it’s probably going
To fall apart you know is there service and and support there if it does go wrong you know I think the the biggest barrier to entry is always going to be political or geopolitical so you know all you need is some politician to say you know we don’t want this in our
Country and then they put tariffs or taxes or you know you know make it really difficult for these EVS to to come into the market so I think I may have cracked the code to China’s incredible success in Australia’s EV Market these companies are offering amazing Tech practicality
Their proximity to us has led to increased availability of models and of course affordability and they’re offering this at a time when the brands we had long been loyal to have either been too busy servicing other markets or in some cases just resting on their Laurels China’s success in the EV space
Is certainly accelerating Australia’s transition to a cleaner transport sector but I can’t help but shed a tear for the good old days when Australia manufactured its own cars our beloved Holdens and Fords at one point we were the 10th largest car maker in the world producing half a million cars a year in
The 70s surely we could blow the cobwebs off the old manufacturing plants and start to put our Rich supply of Natural Resources to good use and perhaps become an Eevee Powerhouse ourselves what’s really important is just as true for Batteries you just much more so for cars is that it’s not just
Do we have the capabilities to the answer is if it’s purely based on a capability and opportunity the answer is absolutely yes the thing is that this is a competitive field if the Prime Minister was traveling around the world saying this is number one on our list of
What we want well so is the president of of Indonesia and you know and so so is the head of state in Malaysia and and in Thailand so that is a level of ambition that we need to show just to be competitive and we’re not showing that
Level of ambition so I think that’s the only thing that’s holding us back from being you know having a real chance within that area wherever an EV is made we want it to be efficient safe comfortable affordable and with great Tech and with components from all around the globe can
We really accurately say that an EV is from a particular place anymore we passed the point of no return we’re not going to go back to a world where China’s not part of the supply chain I think it’s it’s too intertwined and it’s you know you know we’ve done this to
Ourselves we’ve you know shifted all the expertise and the manufacturing knowledge to China so there’ll always be you know Chinese Parts in whatever we use phones computers cars and I think what we’re really going to see is a bit of muddying of the waters so what’s
Defined as Chinese now might be a bit more difficult in the coming years so poar is a good example it’s kind of marketed as a Swedish brand It’s Kind kind of Swedish but it’s definitely made in China also made in America and it it kind of gets a bit complicated it’s a
Global product it’s it’s too hard to pigeon hole into its Chinese or you know it’s it’s western or whatever so no matter what Chinese built EVS are here to stay and I say we are absolutely the better for it the affordability the accessibility the Innovative Tech and the fact that these companies see
Australia as a worthy Market make them a very welcome presence on our roads it will be interesting to see how the Legacy automakers respond over time but I say the more players in this game the better get us better and better technology let competition Drive the prices right down and let’s all work
Together on a global scale to Electrify faster and better
EV sales are going wild in Australia – in 2023 sales doubled and they continue to climb! But the most popular electric vehicle brands include very few of the legacy marques. In fact, just behind Tesla Model Y and Model 3, the Chinese owned electric vehicle brands are gaining significant ground with brands like BYD and MG taking the market by storm. In this episode we ask why and explore how Chinese EVs have captured so much attention and new registrations, why the Australian car market often gets overlooked by global car makers, what else is coming and could Australia ever see the day where it takes up EV manufacturing? ! @fullychargedshow @EverythingElectricShow
00:00 EVs are going gangbusters in Australia
01:10 Top 10 EVs in Australia
01:55 What’s going on?
02:56 Becoming an EV superpower
04:25 Why are Chinese EVs so popular?
05:21 Extreme technology…
07:21 Brand loyalty or bargain hunters?
08:00 BYD vs Tesla
08:17 Limited supply, limited fuel efficiency metrics
08:42 Are Chinese EVs accelerating Australia’s EV transition?
10:01 What’s coming next?
11:48 What slows brands’ entry into Australia?
13:01 Cracked the code
13:25 Manufacture EVs Down Under?
14:35 Global supply chain?!
15:47 Chinese EVs are here to stay
16:03 The more the merrier?
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