FT称小米等中国科技型车企加速冲击欧洲高端汽车市场

Why China’s assault on Europe’s car market has barely begun
Barely two years after launching its car business, China’s largest smartphone maker Xiaomi is seeking to become one of Europe’s top five premium brands.
The company has chosen Germany, one of the region’s most fiercely competitive markets, to launch in Europe next year. Looking to crack the region’s premium market by 2030, it has recruited engineers and designers from BMW, Porsche and Tesla.
“I believe China’s auto industry needs to aim higher to create truly world-class vehicles,” Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun said at the Beijing Auto Show in April. “That’s the value Xiaomi can bring.”
The group is at the forefront of a new wave of tech-focused Chinese electric-vehicle makers, including Xpeng, Li Auto and Huawei-backed Aito, seeking to expand overseas.
Some European dealers have started to notice the newer Chinese carmakers with their advanced software and autonomous technologies, coming into international markets behind the bigger brands.
Though smaller and less well known overseas, the companies have been building share in the fiercely competitive Chinese market especially among younger consumers. Some, such as Xiaomi, have developed a cult-like following.
“I suspect the best is yet to come for Chinese vehicles,” said Nathan Coe, chief executive of the UK’s largest automotive online marketplace Auto Trader, citing the rapid pace of technology innovation of Chinese manufacturers.
The new wave of China’s tech-led EV companies comes as the country’s leading carmakers, led by BYD, are fast becoming household names globally in a space of just two years.
With a wide range of offerings covering EVs, plug-in hybrids and even petrol engine models, the Chinese brands have together grabbed a 9 per cent share of new car sales in Europe and 15 per cent in the UK during the first six months of the year. In May alone, one in 10 new vehicles sold in Europe was Chinese for the first time.
Consultancy AlixPartners estimates that the Chinese share in the EU could rise to 16 per cent by 2030 as competition increases with the arrival of Xiaomi and other newer brands. That would almost be on a par with the combined forecast share of the Japanese and Korean brands.
Compared with the mainstream domestic carmakers, which are popular in China for their affordable and reliable car models, Ernan Cui, car and consumer analyst at Gavekal Research, said the new EV makers were “stars” in terms of the “cool” factor.
“They stand out for their excellent product design, advanced technology and premium, spacious interiors,” Cui said. “They build and sell cars more like tech companies than traditional manufacturers.”
Among such brands, Li Auto has recently said it planned to enter Europe with its i6 model — China’s third best-selling electric sport utility vehicle — in the second half of this year. The group’s founder Li Xiang said the carmaker would also target the Middle East and central Asia in addition to south-east Asia.
Li Auto’s share of China’s battery-only and plug-in hybrid market in 2026 stood at 4.4 per cent, making it the country’s eighth EV brand by sales, according to Shanghai consultancy Automobility.
Volkswagen-backed Xpeng, which will produce its fourth model at contract manufacturer Magna Steyr’s plant in Austria, wants to bring not just its electric and autonomous vehicles but also its flying cars and humanoid robots to international markets.
“We don’t want to be viewed as just another EV brand with affordability as our number one calling point,” said Brian Gu, Xpeng’s vice-chair. “Xpeng spent so much investing in leading technology. We want that to also be felt in our products worldwide.”
While not an owner of car brands, industry executives see Huawei playing a bigger role in overseas markets, becoming a core software and hardware supplier to the sector.
Cut off from American chips, the telecommunications group strengthened its own semiconductor capabilities and is developing vehicles with six Chinese car brands.
Among those, Aito, operated by once nearly bankrupt Seres, showcased its luxury EVs in Europe last year and is furthest along in its international push.
With its advanced driver-assistance technologies, Aito was the third most recommended brand in China’s EV and plug-in hybrid category in the first half of this year followed by Xiaomi and Li Auto, according to LandRoads, a Chinese automotive consultancy that tracks customer satisfaction.
Aito chair John Zhang is aiming to more than double the group’s annual sales to 1mn vehicles by 2028, including by expanding sales to the Middle East and Europe. But some industry executives have questioned whether western restrictions on Huawei technology may hamper those plans.
Both the niche Chinese brands and bigger players such as BYD are also looking to crack the European premium market in the pursuit of bigger profit margins as growth in the domestic market slows.
Tu Le, founder of consultancy Sino Auto Insights, said the “next wave” of Chinese EVs hitting European shores would pitch their brands as premium but would probably price the vehicles between lower-cost Chinese models and higher-end European brands.
However, he added there was a risk that China’s brutal price wars could also be exported. “I would be concerned if I was Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Porsche,” Le said of the three premium German brands.
Some dealers are sceptical about the success of smaller Chinese brands in higher-end markets, noting that even Japanese and South Korean rivals have for decades struggled to crack the European premium segment where brand loyalty is strong.
Burkhard Weller, president of the Association of German Car Dealers, warned that newer Chinese brands in the premium category that have become popular in their home market might not succeed in Europe.
“My prediction is that they won’t pull it off,” said Weller, who also runs one of Germany’s largest dealerships for BMW, BYD and MG. The German premium brands were “firmly entrenched”, making it difficult for newcomers to crack the segment, he explained.
“It’s not just one of them who has failed. It’s all of them,” he said of the other non-European manufacturers that had ventured into the premium segment.
Newer brands such as US-listed Li Auto and Beijing-based Xiaomi may be at a disadvantage as they do not sell vehicles through traditional dealerships — like BYD, Chery and Geely — but directly to consumers through their own stores.
That approach has historically proved challenging in Europe with earlier Chinese entrants such as Nio and Lynk & Co being forced to shift to conventional dealerships and distributors following sluggish sales.
Steve Young, managing director of automotive research company ICDP and Auto West London, an Omoda and Jaecoo dealer, said there were other unknowns, such as how Xiaomi and other tech-based start-ups would handle “ongoing availability of parts and technical support” for software over the long term.
“This may differ from the traditional manufacturers and has not really been tested yet, even in China,” Young said, noting the short history of these companies.
PB Balaji, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, said Chinese rivals “will come eventually” into the luxury space.
But he said he was not worried: “I want to keep the customer base whom I want to serve and as long as we’re true to them, we’ll be fine.”
Still, Lei at Xiaomi is convinced the group’s technological edge will win over new fans. In June, its YU7 GT SUV completed the world’s first autonomous lap at the German race circuit Nürburgring in 10 minutes, underscoring its focus on self-driving technology as a critical feature for its EVs.
“Xiaomi is the first challenger,” Lei wrote on social media. “I believe that in a few more years, Xiaomi’s intelligent driving technology will bring even more amazing progress.”
Data visualisation by Clara Murray in London