BYD and Chery led the doubling of Chinese EV deliveries in April, even as Brussels maintains its tariff wall and Stellantis quietly hands over the keys to underutilized European plants.
Chinese brands accounted for more than 15 percent of EV sales in Europe in April, the first time the threshold has been crossed in a single month.
Sales of all-electric cars from manufacturers such as BYD and Chery more than doubled year-on-year to 38,281 units, according to data force. Across the entire European car market, Chinese brands are approaching 10 percent.
Five years ago the figure was a rounding error. In 2021, Chinese automakers were moving a few thousand electric vehicles a month to Europe. The pace of change since then is what makes the April figure significant more than the number itself.
The story of plug-in hybrids is starker. Chinese brands accounted for about 30 percent of European PHEV sales in the most recent monthly cut, a segment in which they barely existed two years ago. BYD’s Seal U and Atto 2, along with Chery’s Jaecoo and Omoda lines, have done most of the lifting.
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Jaecoo offers the clearest example of how quickly British shoppers, in particular, have moved. The Jaecoo 7 was the best-selling new car in the UK in March, with 10,064 registrations, outperforming its nearest competitor by 70 per cent.
The brand did not launch in the UK until 2025. Plug-in hybrid variants accounted for 85 per cent of those March sales. The car has taken the nickname. Range Rover Temu in the British press, a reference to the discount e-commerce platform and the model it visibly resembles.
The UK does not apply tariffs on imported electric vehicles, which is the other half of the story; About one in seven cars sold in Britain now comes from a Chinese brand.
“You can get a really good new car, very often for £389 ($521) a month.” said Nathan Coe, CEO of Auto Trader, in an interview. “And that proposition of a car that looks good, runs well and has good range is very attractive to people.”
The implication, which Coe did not need to explain, is that British shoppers have weaker brand loyalty than their continental counterparts and notice price.
In the EU, where tariffs of between 17 and 38 percent now apply to Chinese-made electric vehicles, the increase has slowed only marginally. Chinese automakers have responded by opening factories on the continent and, increasingly, tapping into spare capacity from their European rivals. BYD is building its own plant in Hungary.
It is also in talks with Stellantis and other European groups to take over underutilized factories. Stellantis has already opened the door: its joint venture with Dongfeng will build hybrids and electric vehicles for the Chinese group’s Voyah brand in Rennes, France, in which Stellantis owns 51 percent. Opel will build a compact electric crossover developed jointly with Leapmotor in Zaragoza.
The pricing dynamics that make this attractive to Chinese groups are not subtle. A brutal price war in the country has affected margins, and now the profits are exports.
The pricing dynamics that make deals with European factories attractive to Stellantis are also not subtle. The Peugeot-Fiat matrix is decreasing in Europe and displace investment towards the United States, leaving plants on the continent that need to be occupied by someone.
Brussels chose tariffs as leverage. The April figures suggest that the lever, by itself, is not doing the job it was supposed to do.
European industry long term problem is what Coe pointed out: a Chinese electric vehicle at 30,000 euros with a usable range and modern software, sold through a normal dealer network, is now a credible option for someone who five years ago would have bought a Volkswagen.
