Chinese automakers excel in Europe

Chinese manufacturers, excluding Volvo, the European subsidiary of the Chinese group Geely, sold 202,000 light vehicles (passenger and commercial) in Europe in 2022, compared to 82,500 units in 2021, which represents an increase of 145% from one year to the next. MG Motor, with 111,000 units, accounts for more than half of the sales of Chinese manufacturers. This brand now markets seven models, depending on country. In 2022, its road launches involved 55,000 100% electric vehicles (BEV), 17,000 plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and 39,000 combustion engines. Polestar, a subsidiary of Geely, is the second Chinese brand present in Europe. It sold 32,000 cars in 2022. It is followed by another brand from the Geely group, Lynk & Co., which sold 26,000 units of its model alone, the 01. Finally, the last brand to have reached 20,000 sales, DR. It is a subsidiary of the Chery group, the fourth Chinese manufacturer with a production of over 850,000 cars. The brand is only distributed in Italy and Bulgaria and has sold 21,000 cars. If we look by country, Great Britain is the European country where there are the most sales of Chinese cars (62,500 units in 2022), in particular because of the strong presence of MG, which was a British brand before 2005. Germany is the second European market for the Chinese (29,000 units), followed by Italy (24,500 units), Norway (17,000 units), Sweden (16,500 units). France (16,000 units) is in sixth position. These six countries alone account for 82% of Chinese car sales in Europe.