China will tweak its policy to give the three centrally-administered automakers a separate assessment of their NEV businesses, a senior official said.
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A senior Chinese official has complained that state-owned automakers in the country are moving slowly on new energy vehicles (NEVs), hinting that more policies are coming.
In terms of regulating state-owned assets, China needs to incentivize companies to innovate boldly and break down some of the institutional barriers, such as in the NEV sector, said Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, or SASAC.
Zhang mentioned this in a group interview with the media today, saying that state-owned automakers are not moving fast enough in NEVs, and that the country will adjust its policies to give a separate assessment to the three centrally-administered automakers for their NEV business, according to the Economic Daily.
Zhang explained further:
Because we noticed that car companies invested a lot at the beginning of their entry into the NEV sector, as is the case with the automotive industry all over the world.
With fuel vehicles still having an advantage, it's not very easy for them to go full speed ahead if current profits are taken into account.
We will come out with policies to break down this barrier and assess the technology, market share, and future development.
China's NEV industry has grown rapidly over the past few years, but it's private and foreign companies like BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) that are leading the way.
For the full year 2023, BYD sold 2,706,075 NEVs at retail in China, ranking No. 1 in the NEV market with a 35 percent share, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) was second with 603,664 units sold and a 7.8 percent share.
Zhang didn't directly name the three automakers in the interview, but the centrally-administered automakers directly regulated by SASAC are FAW Group, Dongfeng Group and Changan Group.
Of those three, only Changan was ranked sixth in the CPCA's 2023 retail sales rankings for NEVs, with a 5 percent share. Neither FAW nor Dongfeng made it into that top 10 ranking.
Automakers' NEV market share in China in 2023: BYD 35%, Tesla 7.8%, Nio 2.1%
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