Xpeng, Leapmotor and others have fired back with their own discounts, while BYD offered a discount of $1,000 on its market-leading Song Plus SUV, or about 4 percent off.
Those refusing to slash prices on existing models to protect brand value have instead chosen to offer lower-than-expected starting prices for new models, along with longer driving ranges and greater autonomous driving features.
For example, Geely’s premium EV brand Zeekr priced its new compact crossover Zeekr X from $27,500, 28 percent cheaper than Model Y and almost the same price as Honda’s CR-V, first-quarter sales of which slumped 56 percent.
Mitsubishi Motors also said last week it had suspended for three months production of its Outlander SUV in China.
The reality is “brutal” for legacy foreign brands targeting the mass market with small SUVs priced below $40,000, such as Ford, said Le of Sino Auto Insights.
Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, acknowledged the intense market competition for two-row, SUV-styled EVs as a factor driving China’s car export boom.
“That is why they are going big on Europe. Europe is a premium export market. They are all going there,” Farley said in April after a trip to China.
Ford will also restructure its China operations to turn one of its joint ventures into an export hub for low-cost commercial electric and combustion vehicles, Farley said last week.
General Motors, which saw profit from China tumble by almost a fourth in the most recent quarter, needs new EVs to be a success in order to rebuild its market share in China, but the pressure is intense.
“China has 100 vehicle brands vying for sales and a 50 percent capacity utilization rate,” CEO Mary Barra said.
Tesla and Renault have already been exporting their China-made electric SUVs to Europe on a large scale.
Tesla will begin shipping Model Y crossovers from its Shanghai plant to Canada, its first exports to North America, Reuters reported.
Chinese automakers have their own plans to grow electric SUV sales to Europe.
Zeekr said it would bring the Zeekr X to western Europe while exports of BYD’s Atto 3 SUV more than doubled in the first quarter as it started taking orders there.
“The styling of it (Atto 3) is in keeping with the higher driving position, the good space,” said Mark Blundell, BYD’s head of marketing in Britain.
“We just feel it’s a good start point for us in the U.K.”
