I spoke last week of criticism from some Chinese car industry executives
of the massive discounting of electric cars in their home country and
whether it’s sustainable – the criticism mostly levelled at the heavy
discounting by BYD. Locally, BYD is enjoying a substantial lift in sales
generated by its popular BYD Shark 6 ute, and Sealon 6 and 7 SUVs – sales
in June this year tallied 8156, a 367 percent lift over the same month last
year. However, in the Chinese domestic market BYD has suffered a
downturn, slowing by 8 per cent in June, as new Chinese players enter the
market and chase market share. According to Automotive News BYD
domestically is one of the big losers in market share this year despite
heavy discounting while Geely has become the biggest winner.
Competition – there are now 97 domestic brands in the Chinese market.