Chinese electric cars show market strength at Paris auto fair

Chinese cars are increasingly prevalent on European roads and there is certainly no shortage of brands from China at the Paris Auto Show.

But from next month the EU will introduce new taxes on China-made electric vehicles.

Some Chinese carmakers are now considering local production; by manufacturing EVs in Europe they would not be liable for the new duties.

Some firms are already expanding in Europe and believe they are uniquely placed to overtake established names.

"BYD, through its technology and through its investment in R&D, we have 100,000 engineers and are having 15 patents approved every day of the week," said Jean-Briac Dalimard, head of public relations for BYD in France.

Registration of China-built electric vehicles totalled 3.5 percent of the EU market in 2020, a figure that rose to 27 percent in the second quarter of this year.

Such an acceleration in EV sales is good news for Chinese firms but the EU wants to protect its domestic carmakers. Car sales in China for Germany's BMW and Mini, the British brand it owns, fell 30 per cent last quarter.

German combustion models used to dominate the market in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. But EVs and plug-in hybrids now make up more than half of car sales in China.

Quentin Fouvez, head of public relations for Skoda in France, is well aware of the competition faced by his company which originated in Czechia. 

Fouvez told CGTN: "We can see our competitors, there are many competitors here at the Paris Auto Show, and they are offering new electric cars, really interesting for the market with lower prices and smaller cars as well and it's really interesting."

Despite the huge number of chargeable cars making their debut here, EU countries are starting to phase out customer incentives to go green.

While consumers are still buying EVs in Europe, sales growth is slowing down.

This drop in consumer demand among European motorists coincides with a rapid shift to electric vehicles from market rivals in China.

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