SAIC Group is developing in Europe but declining in China
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SAIC Group is developing in Europe but declining in China
- The Chinese group SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) created in 1995 has quickly become the largest Chinese carmaker thanks to its GM and VW productions under license, surpassing the FAW (First Automobile Works) and SAW (Second Automobile Works) groups which became Dongfeng. But SAIC has also its own brands since 2005, most of which come from the former British group British Leyland, such as Roewe(derivated from Rover), MG and Maxus (derivated from LDV ex-Leyland DAF Vehicles).
- SAIC initially distributed its Roewe, MG and Maxus on the Chinese market but then decided to expand the scope of its sales to the European market. In Europe, MG has quickly become the best-selling Chinese brand, with 50,000 sales in 2021, 111,000 in 2022 and 230,000 in 2023, doubling its sales volume each year.
- SAIC has therefore acquired a favorable position in Europe, not to mention the 10,000 additional sales of Maxus in Europe in 2023.
- However, its position is less favorable in China, with a 17% drop in sales in the first seven months of 2024, a drop that is increasing from month to month, as it was -15% at the end of June, -14% at the end of May, -12% at the end of April. The negative gap between the sales volume in the first seven months of 2024 compared to the first seven months of 2023 is 100,000 units. And this gap must be placed in the context of a Chinese market that is currently occupied 63% by Chinese brands instead of 55% in 2023. SAIC's (MG-Roewe-Maxus) market share has thus gone from 4% of the Chinese market last year to 3% this year.
BYD should confirm the construction of an assembly plant in Hungary
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BYD should confirm the construction of an assembly plant in Hungary
- Chinese automaker BYD has announced it is in final negotiations with the Hungarian government to build an electric car assembly plant. BYD plans to produce electric cars and batteries at a factory in Szeged, in the south of the country. Remember that BYD already has an electric bus factory in Hungary (Komarom) but the company wants to set up another factory (much larger) to produce electric cars on a large scale and become the largest producer of electric vehicles in Europe, with a goal of selling one in ten electric cars sold in Europe by 2030 (i.e. approximately 500,000 units).
- Hungary has seen battery carmakers set up on its territory for some time. The establishment of BYD in the country only strengthens the presence of the Chinese in Hungary.
- BYD has quickly become the second largest producer of BEVs in the world (behind Tesla) and the first in China, a market in which it will become the sales leader for all engines combined, ahead of the Volkswagen group and the GM group. BYD thus sold 2,683,374 vehicles in China over the first 11 months of 2023, a figure compared to 2,723,854 sales of the Volkswagen group and 2,091,368 sales of the GM group (including Wuling). But while VW and GM are down compared to 2022, BYD is growing.
- BYD had indicated a few months ago that it wanted to establish itself industrially in Europe, because this market is supposed to become fully electrified in 2035 and recent measures aimed at increasing the price of Chinese cars in several European countries have only encourages this decision. BYD will now follow its great rival Tesla in Europe, which has a factory there that can already produce 500,000 vehicles per year.
Paris Motorshow 2024: overview of the Chinese automobile industry in 2024
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Paris Motorshow 2024: overview of the Chinese automobile industry in 2024
Paris Motorshow 2024: main Chinese novelties displayed
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Paris Motorshow 2024: main Chinese novelties displayed
Paris Motorshow 2024: Inovev forecasts 30,000 units per year of the battery electric Ford Puma
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Paris Motorshow 2024: Inovev forecasts 30,000 units per year of the battery electric Ford Puma
- The Ford Puma B-segment SUV, which dates back to 2019, will now be available in a battery electric version from the 2024 Paris Motor Show, whereas until then it was only available in a petrol version (3-cylinder 1.0 petrol).
- This compact SUV, 4.23 m long, immediately found its market in Europe (it is not sold in the United States or China), as it represented 158,163 sales in Europe (EU + United Kingdom + Switzerland + Norway) in 2023, ranking eleventh in the European ranking. The Puma has managed to completely supplant the Fiesta sedan (B segment), which was stopped at the end of last year. It even became the brand's best-selling model in Europe in 2023, well ahead of the Ford Kuga SUV (121,631 units) in the C segment and the Ford Focus sedan (98,344 units) in the C segment.
- The Puma is produced at the Ford site in Craiova (Romania), for cost reasons, as Romania offers lower labor costs than in Germany, where the Ford Fiesta was produced. While the production volume of the Ford Puma is expected to be around 150,000 units per year over the next few years, the production volume of the battery electric versions is expected to not exceed 30,000 units per year, i.e. a proportion of 20% of the total Ford Pumas produced at the Craiova site.
- The competitors of the battery electric Ford Puma are numerous. We can mention the Fiat 600 e, Jeep Avenger EV, Alfa-Romeo Junior, Opel e-Mokka, DS3 E-Tense, Peugeot e-2008, Hyundai e-Kona, Kia EV3 or Smart #1.