The current EU hype against Chinese electrical vehicles allegedly invading the European market is much ado about nothing. In reality, sales of Chinese EVs are suffering the same fate as European carmakers, figures show. As Handelsblatt reports, in the March, Chinese manufacturer BYD sold 160 vehicles. With the 139 sold in January, and the 94 sold in February, BYD has “invaded” the German market with a total of 393 EVs in the first quarter of 2024! As a percentage of the overall car market in Germany, this is slightly over 0%. Yards at the Bremerhaven port have been full of unsold BYD cars for weeks.
If BYD weeps, German manufacturers of EVs are not laughing. With 31,384 sold in March, EV sales in Germany plunged 30% year-on-year. The reasons are: 1) the end of government price subsidies; 2) the lack of charging infrastructure; 3) the general disaffection among purchasers. (In other words, less and less people want or can afford to buy them.) The ugly truth? Most probably, the potential market for EVs has already been saturated. Now, we are down to a “niche market.” These will be purchasers of EVs who do not actually make use of cars, but whose cars make use of them.
