The expected flood of Chinese car brands in Europe has not materialized so far. To this day, BYD, Xpeng, Aiways, SAIC and many other manufacturers from China who are hardly known in this country are feeling their way rather than flooding the market with their electric vehicles. Only the Chinese billionaire Li Shufu has already built up a brand group with Geely, Lynk and Polestar, which, thanks to the Swedish car subsidiary Volvo, has significant sales figures in Europe.
The rivals tend to proceed in small steps. Some of them use Norway, a pioneer in electromobility, for a test run. From there they want to conquer Europe with new concepts and innovative technology and clever cooperation.
“With the change in the industry towards e-mobility, Chinese car manufacturers see their opportunity to expand to Europe,” says auto professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer. In their home market, they have already caused difficulties for BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen with their electric models. “The supremacy of the Germans in China is crumbling,” says Dudenhöffer.
The car manufacturer Nio, for example, is active in Norway and plans to enter the market in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark this year. It starts with the premium sedan ET7, an electric car with a modern design equipped with electronics and software for automated driving, with which Nio competes against the top dogs Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. The car itself is only part of a concept that the company, which was founded in Shanghai in 2014, is pursuing. The software is much more important for customer loyalty.
So far, the newcomer from Shanghai has only sold 200,000 cars worldwide. With its Nio app, the company is already communicating with a large fan community: in China, the program has been downloaded more than two million times to date. According to the company, these include 240,000 users who take part in activities ranging from baking cakes to fashion shows.
The Nio Life brand uses surplus materials from car production such as airbags, seat belts and leather for its own fashion line. More than five million lifestyle items have been sold through the brand so far, including wine and camping supplies. “We want to form a user community based on the Smart EV,” says Europe Manager Hui Zhang. Peter Fintl from the consulting firm Capgemini explains that Geely is showing how innovative sales models can gain a foothold in Europe. The company relies on a subscription model in which customers pay a monthly rent for their car and can cancel at any time.