(Finance) – Le Sales of electric cars in China will exceed those of traditional cars for the first time next year, in a historic overtaking that places China years ahead of its Western rivals. Based on forecasts from four investment banks and research groups – according to calculations by the Financial Times – sales of electric vehicles in China will rise by 20% to over 12 million units, more than double the 5.9 million in 2022 At the same time, sales of traditional cars are expected to drop by 10% to less than 11 million vehicles, a contraction of almost 30% compared to 2022.
“They want to electrify everything. No country has come as close to this goal as China,” he comments Robert Liew, director of renewables research at Wood Mackenzie.
Beijing reached 10 years ahead of schedule target set in 2020when it established that by 2035 50% of cars sold must be electric. It is currently there Norway to hold the record for e-car sales in terms of market share, with over 90% of new cars powered by batteries.
In a scenario in which, in the coming years, traditional Chinese car plants will produce millions of cars but will not have a domestic market to sell them to and will strongly focus on foreign markets, in recent months the EU has decided to definitively impose additional duties of up to 35.3% on imports of Chinese electric cars in response to the huge subsidies given by Beijing. A decision that has paved the way for a discussion between the EU and China to reach an agreement on the prices of electric car imports, in what is considered an alternative loophole to tariffs that would allow the EU to cancel the tariffs imposed for protect the automotive sector and its approximately 14 million jobs.
In the United States Donald Trump has also announced that he will impose awave of tariffs against Beijing, paving the way for a new trade war between the two superpowers with economic consequences also for Mexico, which Chinese car manufacturers see as a springboard to enter the American market. Among these there is BYD, Tesla’s great rival. Elon Musk in recent months he has said that protectionism and tariffs “are the only thing that will be able to stop the domination of the Chinese car manufacturers, who otherwise will end up demolishing us”.