SHOULD AMERICANS BE AFRAID OF THESE CARS?

WE LEARNED JUST AS MUCH ABOUT THE STATE OF THE CHINESE AUTO INDUSTRY FROM OBSERVING AS WE DID FROM DRIVING

- WORDS CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH

We traveled to Wuhan, China, recently to drive some of the latest and greatest Chinese EVs and to see if American trepidation over Chinese cars is justified. We also made a point to embrace the country’s car culture and to get a sense of what things were like on the ground for both Chinese automakers and consumers. That insight, we figured, just might help us analyze how American shoppers and automakers would fare if Chinese-branded EVs ever hit American roads.

China has more than 200 electric vehicle brands competing against one another in a saturated market that, demographically, is already in decline. It’s an unsustainable situation, yet China's big carmakers (and Western ones competing in China) keep launching new brands. Geely alone had four of its 13 brands represented among the cars we drove, with Zeekr, launched in 2021, its newest. BYD launched Yangwang, its third brand, in 2023. Chery’s iCar is even younger—it's the 10th member of the Chery family of brands and just launched last year after making its debut in the spring of 2023.

This increased competition has resulted in a brutal price war, with big fish like BYD cutting prices and forcing others to follow. Compounding factors, such as overcapacity at Chinese auto factories and slowed economic growth, have turned this race to the bottom into an extinction-level event for some automakers. Once-popular Chinese EV brands like WM Motor and Byton are among the many that have bit the dust. More will undoubtedly follow, especially since DCar editors tell us Chinese consumers are having trouble keeping up with the choices, often resorting back to known brands in their frustration. (DCar is one of China's top automotive media brands and invited us to the country to collaborate.)