05 Feb Recap | Look Back & Look Ahead: Automotive Industry 2024

On January 30, AmCham Shanghai’s Automotive Committee held an event titled “Look Back & Look

Ahead: Automotive Industry 2024.” More than 80 attendees joined.

Bill Russo, Chair of the Automotive Committee, provided opening remarks and gave his monthly update on the state of China’s auto industry. He showed data on vehicle exports — which are surging due to weak domestic demand, although three-quarters of exports are still internal combustion engine (ICE) cars; domestic shipments and the record-high plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales; the market shares of each top new energy vehicle (NEV) brand; and the struggle of foreign brands to compete with their Chinese peers.

Yu Zhang, Managing Director of AutoForesight, then presented on the evolution of China’s NEV market. He touched upon reasons for the recent decline in domestic consumption; the increasing value proposition of PHEVs compared to ICEs; advances in electrical/electronic architecture for EVs and range-extended EVs; and his sales forecast for 2024.

Lei Xing, Co-host of the China EVs & More podcast, shared his observations from the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show, held earlier this month in Las Vegas. He talked about Chinese innovation in vehicle technology; the development and impending commercialization of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles; the consolidation of Chinese light detection and ranging (LiDAR) companies and use of LiDAR by major brands; the cross-domain integration of chips; and the slow development of autonomous vehicles.

The three speakers then answered audience questions on topics including commercial vehicles, the role of technology firms like Xiaomi in the NEV market, state-owned auto brands, and the main challenges for Chinese auto brands going overseas.