Traditionally, global car manufacturing has been concentrated in three main regions: the United States, home of Detroit’s eponymous Big Three; Western Europe, from which motorsport originated; and Japan, the creator of modern vehicle reliability. Since the end of the Cold War, a new regional player has ever so slowly entered into the fray. China, once one of the most rural and underdeveloped communist countries in the world, now boasts a thriving middle class with an appetite for international consumer goods and a desire to own and drive personal vehicles. Seen as a source of relative freedom in an otherwise strictly controlled society, China’s over one billion strong population bought German and American cars in copious amounts to the point of even saving Buick after the 2008 economic crisis. However, as relations soured with Western trading partners and the emphasis on EVs have continued to grow, China responded by developing their own robust domestic automotive industry. Looking beyond China’s borders, companies such as Geely, XPENG, and BYD are emerging as true competitors within the global automotive EV industry, looking to supplant traditional OEMs in Europe and many developing countries. This has the potential to drastically change the automotive landscape globally, and in this article, we’ll explore how this has happened and what the future holds for EV competition.
