Chinese automakers including BYD, MG Motor, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Seres and Dongfeng will be joining Germany’s automakers Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW as participants in the IAA Mobility, which is open to the public from Sept. 5-10.
Xpeng and Leapmotor are both disccssing licensing electric platforms to Volkswagen in China.
The IAA Mobility is Europe’s and Germany’s largest auto show and was held for many years in Frankfurt before the venue was switched to Munich.
CATL, Farasis Energy, Horizon Robotics are among other Chinese companies that will also be at the show.
Growing entry EV threat
Industry observers said China’s strong presence at the IAA highlights the growing threat to established European automakers from Chinese rivals on their home ground.
One particular risk to European automakers is the entry level EV market segment, where there is currently “next to nothing” on offer from European brand, Pacheco said.
“Having the WNEVC come to the IAA in Munich is quite symbolic because we are starting to see Chinese automakers expanding more and more outside of China,” he said.
“The European market is quite challenging for any foreign players, as we have seen with what happened with the Japanese and the South Korean brands — it took them decades to build a market presence here and they’re still not the leaders,” he said.
He predicts Chinese automakers will also face their fair share of difficulties because European consumer are very driven by brand recognition and are likely to be skeptical about new brands and new automakers that they don’t know.
“At the same time, it is a market that is quite heterogeneous where you go from country to country and you see a difference in terms of tastes and needs,” Pacheco said. “This is somewhat hard to understand for a foreign player because they look at Europe as one single thing.”
However, Pacheco said he feels the Chinese can succeed with greater speed than Japanese or South Korean carmakers owning to the prowess they have already shown developing ground-up electric vehicles.
“They are very fast. They might not always be right, but at the same time they’re very quick in adapting,” he said.
