The European export journey of domestic new energy: forced to pile up ports is tougher than you think

In the new energy era, we rely on policy support and continuous breakthroughs in technology, China's new energy vehicles are undoubtedly in the forefront of the world in terms of products and supply chains, and overtaking through new energy corners has become a reality, and the domestic automobile industry that has been suppressed by joint ventures for decades has been revitalized, so many people have begun to look forward to the prosperity of Chinese auto brands exported to the world, and this is indeed gradually realized.

Since 2014, China began to pay attention to the export of the automobile industry, and more importantly, the domestic new energy industry finally began to sprout, China's exports jumped from 900,000 to 5.22 million in the whole year, an increase of nearly six times, since then, China's automobile exports have taken off all the way, especially with the maturity of new energy products, from 2021 to 2023, China's automobile exports have achieved three consecutive jumps, respectively exceeding 2 million, 3 million, and 5 million.

Among them, domestic new energy vehicles are the main driving force for growth. According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in 2023, the total export of complete vehicles (excluding used cars) in mainland China will reach 4.91 million units, with a growth rate of 57.9%, of which the export of new energy vehicles has exceeded 1.2 million units, and the overall growth rate is close to 80%, far exceeding the overall market.

Our new energy products have received a good response in Southeast Asia and other regions, such as Thailand, the base camp of Southeast Asia, whose new energy market is almost monopolized by a number of domestic brands such as BYD, SAIC, Nezha, etc., and the walls of Japanese brands that have been cultivated locally for many years have been gradually leveraged, which happens in almost every country in Southeast Asia.

In fact, many countries such as South Asia, Latin America, and Russia have become the main exporters of China's new energy products.

Various new energy brands in the mainland, including new car-making forces, are advertising that they are trying to export to the European market and have achieved quite success, which has caused many consumers to think that our trams have been counterattacking the European base camp, but this does not seem to be the case, and China's new energy is still struggling in the European market.

Let's take the data of "Di Wang" as an example, in the first quarter of 2024, BYD's own export data is about 8-90,000, and some media found that BYD sold a total of 37,091 trams in 16 export countries in the first quarter, of which Thailand and Brazil accounted for more than half, and other major markets include Israel, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Obviously, only so much was sold, so did the rest of the export cars be transported on the sea?

It is true that some of the models produced in March are still in transit, but the number of this part cannot be as high as tens of thousands, in fact, a large number of new energy vehicles of Chinese car companies are stranded in ports.

According to the Financial Times, China's new energy vehicles often arrive in Europe with nowhere to go and end up at ports, especially in the port of Antwerp-Bruges, the busiest port in Europe. Port operators complain that this is no longer a port, but a parking lot for newly arrived Chinese electric vehicles.

Some European dealers said that Chinese cars are sending a large number of cars to Europe, but the overall sales in the European market are not so fast, and "some cars take up to 18 months before finding a buyer or shipping to other places". In fact, Chinese automakers have indeed increased their shipments to Europe, with surveys showing that the number of cars exported to Europe by Chinese manufacturers this year has increased by 58% compared to last year, with most of them going to ports in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.

According to the reaction of some domestic car companies, Chinese products cannot arrive at the port more because of the "lack of trucks", and this is not a problem of a certain Chinese brand, but the crux of the entire domestic car overseas business.

In fact, because most trucking companies have signed fixed treaties with other country car companies such as Tesla, local trucking companies prefer to do business with customers who have long-term relationships and prioritize them when assigning trucks to perform various tasks, which leads to them only using very little capacity to help Chinese car companies, and Chinese car companies have no choice but to hang in the port.

However, this is also the process that Chinese car companies must go through to the sea, without forming a strong and stable production and sales volume, whether it is a dealer or a transportation team will not give you preferential treatment, even if the car arrives at the port, it can only wait endlessly, China's new energy export to Europe is blocked and long.