Chinese tech firms strive for leadership in global e-vehicles market

Visitors learn about a new energy vehicle at the booth of Chinese automaker Geely at the smart vehicle section of the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 1, 2023. (Xinhua/Li He)

Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, a German researcher of the auto industry, believes "tech companies such as Huawei, Google, Microsoft, and Xiaomi are becoming game changers" in a new car world where the market share of electric and intelligent cars will swell.

BERLIN, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech companies will play a key role in the global automotive industry in years to come, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of CAR Center Automotive Research Duisburg, a research company focusing on mobility, said in an interview with Xinhua on Friday.

He said he expects the car market to "change radically" over the next 10 years, with electric cars and intelligent or software-driven cars increasing their market share at the expense of traditional automobile technologies.

"In this new car world, tech companies such as Huawei, Google, Microsoft, and Xiaomi are becoming game changers," he said.

Visitors learn about new energy vehicles of Chinese carmaker BYD during the 27th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Auto Show at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, June 16, 2023. (Xinhua/Liang Xu)

Huawei and Xiaomi, for example, are developing new cars that offer "an entire digital ecosystem," Dudenhoeffer said. "This is much more than having a smart car," he said.

In a report released recently, Dudenhoeffer predicted that Chinese car manufacturers will become global market leaders in the automotive business in around 10 years, with BYD surpassing Toyota.

It is because the Chinese market "has been growing very dynamically" in the new energy vehicle (NEV) segment, Dudenhoeffer wrote in the report.

This photo taken on Nov. 10, 2022 shows a vehicle displayed at the booth of Huawei during the Light of Internet Expo in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

BYD increased its global sales by 309 percent in the last three years to more than 3 million units in 2023 and was "clearly the market leader" for NEVs, according to the report. Chinese start-up Li Auto saw an even faster growth of 318 percent last year, but it was still "considerably smaller" than BYD, with 376,000 new cars sold in 2023.

"China is the breeding ground for new car manufacturers that will play a central role in the electromobility segment of the automotive industry," Dudenhoeffer said, noting that the largest plant of U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla, measured by production figures, is currently located in China.