A number of Chinese car manufacturers have announced in recent years that they are entering the European market. Most recently, Chery Auto and Spanish EV Motors established a joint venture. The production of their vehicles may begin in one of Nissan’s former plants.
Chinese Chery Auto enters the European market
The Chinese car manufacturer Chery Auto and the Spanish EV Motors signed a joint venture contract recently. According to it, the two companies will manufacture cars in a previously used Nissan plant in Spain.
Work is expected to begin this year at the European factory. For the first time, Chery can produce its Omoda-type cars there. EV Motors can start production with its own vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Portfolio notes that Nissan’s former plant in Catalonia is currently home to several local businesses. An electric motorcycle is also made there, for example.
Spain, as Europe’s second largest car manufacturer, launched a program in 2020 to encourage electric vehicle and battery production. As a result, large car manufacturers such as Volkswagen and Renault are also investing in the country.
The European market for electric cars may continue to grow
By the way, while in 2020 only one out of 25 new cars sold was a fully electric (BEV) or plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) in Europe (besides the European Union member states in the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland), last year every fifth car was the aforementioned two belonged to one of the categories.
The breakthrough occurs when the share of electric vehicles in the entire vehicle fleet reaches 10 percent. Based on the data, we strongly expect that the share of EV sales in Europe by 2030 will exceed that of all other types. Domestic distributors and retailers should also prepare for the transformation of consumer needs as soon as possible, even by involving an external expert, in order to gain a competitive advantage in the market
– we quoted Tamás Rózsa, EY-Parthenon’s automotive industry expert, a few days ago.
Parallel to the popularity of electric vehicles (EV), Europe’s public fast charging network has also expanded. While there were 530,000 charging points in 2022, there were 744,000 at the end of 2023. Within this, the number of fast and ultra-fast DC chargers increased by 77 percent in the examined period, so that it now exceeds 100,000. And the amount of AC charging points (AV) jumped by 36 percent. In addition, the performance of fast chargers today is ten times that of five years ago.
However, the distribution of charging stations is uneven geographically. Just seven countries accounted for 78 percent of European stations last year: Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Sweden.
