Chinese EV Makers Bet on Tech and Exports to Compensate for a 47% slump in Domestic Sales Since January

• While Chinese EV sales are still the highest in the world, they dropped 47% since January due to a weak economy and changes in government subsidies.

• To counteract this, Chinese EV makers are pushing new battery and autonomous driving technologies.

• In addition, exports could play a large part in these companies’ recovery.

While China remains the largest automotive market in the world and the country where the most electric vehicles are sold every year, sales have cooled off in the last few months.

Indeed, 38% fewer new vehicles were sold in the country in April than in March, making it the fourth monthly loss in a row.

Electric vehicles have not been spared, with 47 % fewer sales from January to April 2026 than during the same period in 2025.

This slump can be explained by a new 5% purchase tax on electric vehicles (10% on combustion-powered models), a change in government incentives, and a generally weak economy.

While buyers in China were previously entitled to a 15,000 Yuan (CAD $3,050) rebate on any electric vehicle when they traded-in their previous car, the rules have changed since the start of the year.

Now, drivers can get 8% off the price of a new electric vehicle, with the amount capped at 15,000 Yuan.

To counteract this trend and help sales start to grow again, Chinese automakers have supercharged their tech war, launching new advanced technologies every few months to outdo one another and try to get customers back into showrooms.

The main focus areas of this technological race are battery and charging capabilities, as well as autonomous driving features, including robotaxis.

Indeed, Chinese automakers see coming up with new technologies as a way to differentiate themselves from each other as well as from their foreign competition.

At the moment, some Chinese electric vehicles, like those from BYD, can be charged from 10 to 70% in only 5 minutes and up to 97% in 9 minutes.

The electric vehicles sold in North America that get the closest are the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis models based on the E-GMP 800-volt electrical architecture, which can charge from 10 to 80% in 18 minutes.

This shows just how much further ahead than “legacy” automakers Chinese carmakers already are. Furthermore, BYD claims to have solved the issue of cold-weather charging performance, making it so their Blade battery can go from 30 to 97% charge in only 12 minutes at temperatures as low as -30-degrees Celscius.

To limit the impact of these incredibly fast charging sessions on the battery’s longevity, BYD claims to have found ways to reduce heat generation and improve heat dissipation.

Other automakers such as XPeng and Geely are betting on autonomous driving technologies and Artificial Intelligence instead, with the former becoming the first Chinese automaker to launch a robotaxi that was entirely developed in-house.

Unlike most currently operating robotaxis, this one doesn’t feature a Lidar sensor and instead uses AI to interpret data coming from cameras and reason through potential problems and unknown situations.

A full rollout of this robotaxi is planned for 2027, which is also the year in which Geely aims to bring its own driverless vehicles to market.

While these features give Chinese automakers a leg up over better-established automakers, including premium brands, on their home market, they should also make them much more desirable in export markets.

Indeed, Chinese automakers expect to recoup a large part of their lost domestic sales by significantly increasing their exports in 2026.

This already seems to be working, since the country’s exports of EVs, PHEVs, and extended-range EVs more than doubled in April to reach 406,000 units.

Since the start of the year, these “new energy” vehicles have accounted for 1.3 million exports and growth is still expected for months to come, thanks to a larger presence in Europe and the expected start of sales in Canada by BYD, Chery and Geely.

In addition to compensating for lost sales in China, the arrival of affordable and technologically advanced Chinese electric vehicles could also help EV sales recover in Canada.

Source: Automotive News