The world’s car industry will shrink to only 10 companies over the coming decade, a Chinese rival to Elon Musk’s Tesla has said, as intense competition in China’s electric vehicle market spills on to the global stage.
Brian Gu, vice-chair of Guangzhou-headquartered Xpeng, said for Chinese companies to be among the last carmakers standing, they would need to have annual sales of at least 3mn vehicles, underpinned by global exports. The world’s largest carmaker Toyota sold 10.5mn cars in 2022, while Tesla sold 1.3mn.
The warning comes at a historic juncture for the global car industry. China is on the cusp of overtaking Japan as the world’s biggest exporter of cars by volume after passing Germany last year. At the same time, slowing growth and an intense price war is pushing low-cost carmakers to the brink of collapse in China, the world’s biggest car market.