Summary
China has become the world’s largest car exporter by dominating electric vehicle (EV) production, surpassing traditional carmakers in Europe, Japan, and the U.S.
This shift stems from China’s heavy investment in battery technology, supply chains, and generous subsidies, enabling it to produce cheaper EVs, like the BYD Seal, compared to Western competitors.
Europe and America, reliant on outdated internal combustion engine expertise, have struggled to adapt to this disruptive innovation.
Many nations are imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs, but without robust domestic battery infrastructure, Western car industries face mounting challenges as the EV transition accelerates.
Factor that a lot of people miss is that Chinese companies have been building cheap EVs at scale before Tesla was even an idea.
Sure, they were two-wheeled, not climate controlled, lacked creature comforts, and whatever… but those are simple problems when you have a big battery to run things off of.
Electric bikes and mopeds built up expertise in China that carried over naturally to electric cars.