David Bailey, Professor – Aston Business School
There is a dilemma looming for EU and UK policy makers.
On the one hand they have set highly ambitious targets for shifting to EVs (even with the UK pushing back the ICE ban to 2035) so as to move towards Net Zero. On the other hand they both want to transition their auto industries to making EVs.
Encouraging fast take up needs cheaper EVs that more drivers can afford. And given that China has been at this for almost 25 years, it has a huge first mover advantage, with the scale and experience to make EVs at 25-30% lower cost than European auto makers can currently manage.
Chinese made cars (think of models made by Tesla and MG) regularly feature in the top ten best sellers list in the UK. And models are just arriving from BYD, the world’s biggest maker of EVs (it surpassed Tesla last year) and GWM. Such cars are not only cheaper but also of surprisingly high quality. And BYD’s blade batteries are genuinely innovative.
The Chinese g...
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