With the rapid popularity of electric vehicles in the domestic market, fuel vehicles continue to be squeezed, and seeing that they may lose the Chinese market if they do not join, when many foreign-funded automobile companies are still hesitating, Toyota, the world's largest automobile company, announced that it plans to build a wholly-owned factory in Shanghai, which will only produce electric vehicles and sell them in the Chinese market.
How aggressive is the EV offensive in the Chinese market? In April, the share of electric vehicles in China's new car market exceeded 50%, so much so that media sources claimed that gasoline vehicles have become a minority, and the popularity of electric vehicles in the domestic market is expected to accelerate further as electric vehicles further advance the price war.
In 2023, nearly 60% of global electric vehicle sales will be sold in the Chinese market, and it is estimated that the proportion will further increase this year; In markets outside of China, electric vehicles are still trying to break through the 10% of the new car market, which shows that the recognition of electric vehicles in markets outside China is not high.
For auto companies, the Chinese market is the market they must keep, and there are only three markets where global car sales will exceed 10 million in 2023, namely China, the United States and the European Union, with sales of 30.09 million, 15.6 million and 10.5 million respectively, and the car sales in the Chinese market are almost twice that of the US market, and nearly 5 million more than the combined sales of the US and European markets, which makes it impossible for foreign auto companies to abandon the Chinese market.
However, with the rise of Chinese auto companies relying on electric vehicles, the share of foreign auto companies in the Chinese market has been squeezed to 30%, seeing the rapid popularity of electric vehicles in the Chinese market, the global car leader Toyota has chosen to compromise, and it is rumored that it plans to build a wholly-owned factory in Shanghai to specialize in the production of electric vehicles.
Toyota is doing this in the hope of leveraging China's perfect electric vehicle industry chain, nearly seventy percent of the world's electric vehicles are made in China, Tesla's Shanghai factory was put into operation in 2019, but it only took 2 years to become Tesla's largest factory in the world, and Tesla's Shanghai factory will contribute more than half of Tesla's production capacity in 2023.
The cost of manufacturing electric vehicles in China is the lowest, Tesla founder and CEO Musk pointed out that the manufacturing cost of the Shanghai factory surprised him, industry insiders believe that the cost of Tesla cars produced in the Shanghai factory is more than sixty percent lower than that of the American factory, because the cost of the Shanghai factory is low enough, a large number of Tesla cars produced by the Shanghai factory are exported, and in 2023, Tesla's Shanghai factory will export 340,000 cars to markets outside China.
In this case, Toyota certainly hopes to take advantage of the Chinese manufacturing to quickly launch electric vehicles and achieve low-cost production, join the electric vehicle war in the Chinese market, and at the same time consolidate its share of the Chinese car market, which is too large.
Toyota manufacturing and sales of electric vehicles in China is also a favorable time, last year the penetration rate of electric vehicles in the Chinese market accelerated, many fuel vehicle companies have also begun to join the battlefield, with consumers have an in-depth understanding of electric vehicles, consumers began to prefer to choose fuel vehicle companies to develop electric vehicles, that fuel vehicle companies produce electric vehicles safer, after-sales service is more secure, so the top five in the domestic electric vehicle market three are fuel vehicle companies, namely GAC, Changan and Geely, In this case, Toyota, which has more solid technology, does have a great opportunity to intervene in the electric vehicle market.
Toyota's intensified efforts to attack China's electric vehicle market will attract other foreign-funded automobile companies to attack China's electric vehicle market, and the electric vehicle market will enter a more painful stage.