Chinese manufacturers' advance into the West European new passenger car market continues to see little progress since early gains were spotted. During the opening five months of 2024, just three per cent of the West European new car market could be attributed to Chinese brands such as SAIC's MG brand, BYD, or Polestar, according to the latest monthly collated data from Schmidt Automotive Research.
SAIC's MG brand continued to account for the majority of those vehicles or 60 per cent of the 148,900 Chinese-badged modes entering the 4.98 million West European regions so far this year.
Meanwhile, the likes of BYD accounted for just 0.3% of the region's new car market this year, with volumes not surpassing 13,000 between January and May this year with little movement from monthly averages staying almost constant at just 2,600 new volumes per month. BYD is now present in almost all West European markets, with Switzerland remaining absent.
The picture at NIO appeared even darker. Fewer than 700 models have entered the region's new car market so far this year, or less than half of XPeng's total, which climbed to almost 2,000. XPeng's volumes were dominated by its full-size SUV G9 electric model.◼︎︎
More exclusive in-depth data like this and insights are published for subscribers (€) in the The European Electric Car Study published by Schmidt Automotive Research each month, which is available to purchase as a single edition or an annual subscription.
The study now also features a double page in-depth look at the Chinese OEMs as their European expansion slowly begins.
*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK