Where will be the Detroit of electric vehicles?

A fierce battle is under way in China.

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Chongqing's mountainous, cyberpunk panoramas and sticky summer heat seem worlds away from flat and dry Detroit. But carmakers in the Chinese metropolis cannot stop drawing parallels with the American city.

Standing outside one of Chongqing's sprawling car-assembly plants, a boss at Changan, a state-owned auto giant, notes with pleasure that the sheer number of cars being produced in the city – some 2.5 million in 2024 – has earned it the moniker "Motown of China".

In many senses, Chongqing has surpassed its American rival. Most importantly, it makes hundreds of thousands more cars per year, as do several other Chinese cities. But the comments reflect a more profound aspiration: that Chongqing can be the defining city of the electric vehicle, much as Detroit was of the petrol car.

It will be a challenge. Although China's EV dominance is plain, its carmaking is dispersed. Twelve provinces and administrative regions produced more than one million cars in 2024; four managed over two million. And some of these also want the "Detroit" crown.

Guangdong province, home to BYD, is a giant. The government of Wuhan has said that the city will "build itself into China's Detroit". Changchun, in the far north-east, has similar hopes. Analysts have also dubbed Hefei, an up-and-coming industrial hub 400km inland from Shanghai, the "Detroit of the 21st century".

This competition is not just a question of bragging rights – it matters dearly to local government officials. Not long ago they relied on the property industry to produce stunning economic-growth figures. But a real estate crisis has forced them to look elsewhere, as property (broadly defined) has shrunk from 30 per cent of China's GDP five years ago to just over 20 per cent.