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From the EUROPEAN ELECTRIC CAR STUDY:
French OEMs most vulnerable to Chinese incursion?
Being rich pickings for premium manufacturers since the early 2000s as the likes of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes began introducing smaller segment vehicles, enticing private customers away from the likes of Ford, Peugeot or Citroën, while fleet customers made the switch to premium models, killing off the "classic" fleet models, volume brands are now seeing Chinese OEMs entering the European market pick off some of the remaining "volume brand" fat from the other end of the spectrum according to latest Schmidt Automotive Research.
Renault, which saw its share of the West European market half since 2004 (10.2%) to just 5.1% after 4-months this year, partly through cannibalisation from its Dacia brand, which saw every tenth of the Renault-owned Romanian brand's West European new registrations arrive from China (Spring) this year.
While MG and white label Chery models – sold in Southern Europe only – did most of the running, BYD's market entrance......
More in-depth reporting in the full study published each month. The study now also features an in-depth look at the Chinese OEMs as their European expansion slowly begins. Are Chinese OEMs really a threat to the established European OEMs and what does the outlook look like?
May also interest you: VW Group flex muscles when it comes to common EV models while Tesla claims top BEV brand in W-Europe click here for the story
*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK