Global Electric Vehicle Sales Are Accelerating - China Leads the Charge

EV Sales by Region (2012–2024, Millions)

Over the last decade, global electric vehicle sales have surged, with China leading a remarkable expansion that’s reshaping the automotive landscape. Europe, the U.S., and other regions are catching up, but it’s Asia that’s driving the most dramatic change. The chart below highlights how EV adoption is accelerating worldwide.

Electric Car Sales 2012 2024

Chart colours: Orange: China/ Blue: Europe/ Green: United States/ Grey: Rest of world

Sources: IEA analysis based on data from EV Volumes (2024) and the China Passenger Car Association (2024) – https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-cars

Chinese EV Engineering

Today, BYD, the parent company of Yangwang, has 120,000 engineers in its R&D department, and the Y9 can reach a top speed of 233mph and has a body control system so advanced that the car can jump in the air of its own accord. The 1360bhp all-wheel drive NIO EP9 has set lap records, with and without a driver, while the Hyptec SSR boasts state-of-the-art active aerodynamics and can accelerate to 62mph in just 1.9 seconds.

So, make no mistake, the engineering and the technology behind these cars are absolutely world-class. And they look cool, too. But does any of that make you want one?

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    Would You Choose a Chinese EV Supercar?

    Now let’s, for argument’s sake, take the EV factor out of the equation for now. Imagine an apocalyptic future where all internal combustion engines, including hybrids, were banned – no more howling V6s, V8s or V12s, just whisper-quiet battery power.

    Would you consider a Chinese EV supercar over a Ferrari, a Lamborghini or a Porsche then, especially if it offered even better performance, technology and value for money?

    European Prestige vs Chinese Innovation

    Or will the sheer prestige of a historic European brand always trump everything a Chinese brand has to offer? Certainly, in the non-luxury, non-supercar mass market, buyers are voting with their wallets and abandoning traditional car manufacturers en masse.

    Across Europe, car sales and brand retention just seem to have been shot to pieces. Customers are enthusiastically converting to Chinese car brands Europe such as BYD, NIO and Chery, seemingly without shedding a sentimental tear for the Fords, Peugeots and Vauxhalls they were driven to school in, taken on family days out in, and even learned to drive in.

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    Mass Market EV Loyalty

    In the mass-market EV sector, loyalty is based more on technology than emotion, and it can be quickly undermined by software glitches, sub-standard customer service or charging frustration. Equally, when it comes to time for a new car, if another manufacturer can offer access to a better charging infrastructure and provide a more immersive digital experience, many customers are happy to make the switch even if they have never heard of that manufacturer before.

    The Power of Brand Heritage in Luxury Supercars

    That’s clearly not how it is with luxury electric supercars. No one wants a supercar from a manufacturer they have never heard of before. They want performance cars from manufacturers whose products they have desired all their adult lives and, in many cases, since childhood.

    The story of the Ferrari F40 poster on the bedroom wall may be a cliché, but that doesn’t stop it from being true, or a very effective, ultra-early deployed marketing tool.

    Would you consider giving space in your supercar garage – dream or real – to a Hyptec SSR, a NIO EP9 or a Yangwang U9? They are all, of course, Chinese EV supercars. But before you shake your head, these are not the bad copies of European models that some Chinese automakers were producing a decade ago, in an era when R&D may well have stood for ‘Replicate and Duplicate’.

    What’s Next for Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche?

    The answer is that no one in the West is currently considering giving garage space to a Hyptec SSR, a NIO EP9, or a Yangwang U9. But that could change. As the Hungarian-born American businessman, Andy Grove, famously observed, “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”

    And if I were Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche, I would be keeping a very close eye on the technology coming out of China from those legions of R&D engineers.

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