The car manufacturer Beijing Automotive Industry Holding (BAIC) yesterday joined the Chinese brands that have recently landed in Spain determined to compete in the automotive market. It presented a strategic agreement with the Galician port of El Ferrol to export its cars both to the country and to the rest of Europe.
Founded in 1958, BAIC produces about 1.5 million cars a year, a figure close to that of manufacturers such as Ford. Its premiere in Spain will be through the premium brand Arcfox and will have the support of the largest Chinese shipping company, Cosco, with which it has signed an agreement to transport the first 3,000 vehicles. They will arrive in El Ferrol starting in April, chosen as the logistics port for all of Europe.
These cars, which are manufactured in Zhenjiang, in northeastern China, will join those of other brands that have recently arrived in Spain, such as BYD or SAIC. One of them, MG, has managed to ensure that one of its low-cost combustion cars, the ZS, has become the best-seller in the Spanish market for several months and has closed the year in fourth position, on equal footing with well-established models from Toyota, Seat or Dacia.
MG has also placed an electric car as the third best-selling car in Spain, behind two from Tesla, the Y and the 3. It has just launched a commercial offensive in which, counting aid, the price of its electric car drops by the 17,000 euros.
BAIC does not arrive in Spain with a low-cost car, but with a high-end electric car. His goal is to “penetrate Europe, a market with high potential given European plans to decarbonize the economy,” he says. It will market up to five models in the Spanish market with prices ranging between 35,000 and 60,000 euros.
The general director of the Ganvam car sales association, Fernando Miguélez, assured yesterday that the market is heading towards a turn in which there will be a boom in new models led by the emergence of Chinese cars, which will contribute to lowering prices. “We see a scenario of unlimited supply,” he stated.
Miguélez predicts a “price war between electric vehicle manufacturers” and warns that “European manufacturers will suffer.” There are no forecasts on the market share that Chinese cars will take, but Ganvam assumes that Asian brands will go from capturing 20% currently to levels of 30% in the middle of the decade.
The strength of Chinese products is not free of mistrust in the EU and the United States. Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that thousands of luxury cars imported from China and produced by brands such as Porsche, Bentley and Audi have been detained by US authorities on suspicion that several of their parts have been manufactured using forced labor. The three brands are part of the Volkswagen Group.
The newspaper claims that the group has delayed the delivery of the vehicles until March while it replaces some electronic components from “western China.”
