Stuff you didn’t know: Episode 1

I am assuming that one way or another most of us consume some news each day, and in that news you can’t have failed to notice that car manufacturers are mentioned - especially in the context of reducing Chinese demand. Is China really that important? Surely the USA is the dominant market? Surely we in the UK are too...we always have been, haven’t we? 

 

I’ll keep these blogs short, otherwise attention will wane. So, what’s the answer? China is really important. Really, really, really important. 

 

China now produces more than twice as many cars as the next best (the USA) at just under 30,000,000, yes, 30 million cars annually. In the UK we produce 1.7 million. And they buy them too. 

 

Not only that, but we think of China as polluting in the west? Indeed, smog is a major factor in Chinese cities. Are they into big V8’s then? No, certainly not entirely! In the whole of the USA they sold 199,000 EV’s in 2018, Europe sold 212,000 and China...wait for it...a whopping 769,000! 

 

After the newly launched Tesla Model 3 (121,193 sales in 2018) the second highest selling EV is the BAIC EC at 92,460 in 2018. 

 

So, how relevant is China? Very!