Automakers in China are building a new generation of larger, more technologically advanced and competitive electric cars, threatening to move even further ahead of their global rivals as exports increase around the world.
The dozens of auto companies operating in China plan to put 71 new battery-electric models on sale this year. Many new models have higher hoods for a bolder look and more storage space. Cars have larger tires that improve braking. The seats are thicker and more comfortable. Batteries are becoming smaller, more powerful and faster to recharge.
The changes are aimed at making the cars even more attractive to customers in China and more competitive abroad. Along with plug-in hybrid cars, battery electric cars are taking sales away from gasoline cars and their manufacturers.
The approvals show the Chinese government’s eagerness to boost the development of autonomous vehicles, which are seen as critical to the future competitiveness of the auto industry. The technology is more compatible with battery electric cars than with plug-in hybrids or gasoline cars, and Chinese companies are trying to catch up with Tesla, a leader in these systems.
In the United States, Tesla’s Autopilot feature has been the subject of a series of government safety investigations. But in China, regulators and the general public have tended to view the technology as safer than relying on human drivers.
Chinese automakers have been investing heavily in driver assistance software. An electric car “is becoming a robot on wheels,” said Frank Wu, vice president of design at Jiyue. The company is a joint venture between Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese automaker, and Baidu, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence companies and a partner of Tesla in its autonomous driving efforts in China.
Better batteries and lower costs underpin China’s push toward electric cars. CATL, based in southeast China and the world’s largest maker of electric car batteries, announced last week at the Beijing auto show that a 10-minute charge of its newest battery would give it a range of 600 kilometers. . A full 30-minute charge would give a range of 620 miles, the company said.
Achieving these distances involves very high-precision chemistry and engineering and “placing each nanoparticle in the right place,” said Gao Huan, chief technology officer of CATL’s electric car business.
Advances have meant carmakers can use smaller batteries, freeing up space inside cars, or they can keep the battery the same size and achieve greater range.
Much of the extra space goes to larger rear seats with more legroom.
“We are going to focus more on the back seat; we want to make it more attractive,” said Wang Tan, general director of design at XPeng Motors, a Chinese electric car maker.
Electric vehicle manufacturers used to prioritize keeping cars as light as possible, because weight is what matters most when determining how far a car can go before needing a recharge. But more powerful batteries now allow electric vehicles to be taller and heavier.
The larger fronts create a luxurious look that taps into many buyers’ admiration for sport-utility vehicles, said Kris Tomasson, Nio’s vice president of design.
“A superior front has that prestige,” he said.
Chinese automakers are also adopting sharper designs, such as a teal Denza Z9GT sedan on display at the BYD show. They are moving away from lightweight but expensive aluminum and making cars with a higher proportion of heavier but cheaper steel alloys.
Aluminum body panels should be more curved and not allow for the sharper lines possible with the return to steel, said Stefan Sielaff, Geely’s vice president of global design. The effect is to make the cars more visually striking as automotive fashions move away from the rounded shapes of previous electric cars.
Customers abroad, as well as in China, are becoming more demanding. Many are buying plug-in hybrids instead of purely battery-powered cars, although markets for both continue to grow in China.
Not all electric cars at the Beijing show are bigger and more spacious. Chinese budget smartphone maker Xiaomi unveiled its first electric car, the SU7 sports sedan. The technology company has taken a step in the automobile market that Apple has been reflecting on for many years without undertaking.
The SU7 looks almost identical from the outside to a Porsche Taycan electric car. But it costs less than a fifth of a Taycan, which in China ranges from $140,000 to $275,000.
Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, was followed by a crowd of admirers as he walked through the auto show.
He exuded confidence in a speech at the launch of SU7 while also expressing concern for a rival. “Except for Tesla, there doesn’t seem to be anyone better than us,” he said.
Chinese auto executives consistently express a mix of respect and fear toward Tesla, an automaker that didn’t debut any new cars at the show. Last week, Tesla announced a 9 percent drop in sales and a 55 percent drop in profits in the first quarter of this year, and plans to lay off more than a tenth of its employees worldwide, or 14,000 people.
Long-established Western automakers, by contrast, are lagging behind in autonomous driving and are struggling to catch up in electric cars.
General Motors and Ford Motor have lost much of their market share in China over the past five years. Ford unveiled the most talked-about car at the Beijing auto show in 2020, the Mustang Mach-E electric car. But administrative problems caused more than a year of production delays and public interest evaporated.
Ford decided this year to emphasize very different Mustangs, equipped with huge five-liter V-8 gasoline engines and four exhaust pipes.
Bill Russo, former chief executive of Chrysler China and now an electric car industry consultant in Shanghai, said Tesla had emerged as the only strong US global contender in the electric vehicle market.
“If they ever die, the entire EV market will die with them in the United States,” he said.
Companies established in Europe also face formidable challenges. China’s electric car exports to Europe are increasing, prompting an investigation by the European Union to determine whether they are unfairly subsidized.
Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of Volkswagen China, called on Chinese manufacturers to buy car parts in Europe and assemble them there using European workers.
“So they have to manage a European workforce, European companies, and they have to compete in the same environment that we compete in,” he said. China has used high tariffs and other measures to require multinationals to make cars in China for the Chinese market.
Chinese electric vehicles are closing in on those in the United States.
Geely is exporting its Polestar 2 to the United States from China and paying a 27.5 percent tariff to do so. It is also beginning to export its new Polestar 3, ahead of a planned move of production to an assembly line in South Carolina this summer.
Li you and Joy Dong contributed to the research.