WARSAW ¨C China¡¯s electric-vehicle industry captured half its domestic market in just a few years, crushing sales of gasoline-powered vehicles from once-dominant global automakers.
But foreign players weren¡¯t the only losers. Many Chinese legacy automakers also watched their sales collapse ¡ª and responded by flooding the world with fossil-fuel vehicles they couldn¡¯t sell at home.
While Western policymakers have focused on the threat of China¡¯s heavily subsidized EVs, protecting their markets with tariffs, U.S. and European automakers face greater competition from China¡¯s gas-guzzlers in countries from Poland to South Africa to Uruguay. Fossil-fuel vehicles have accounted for 76% of Chinese auto exports since 2020, and total annual shipments jumped from 1 million to likely more than 6.5 million this year, according to data from China-based consultancy Automobility.
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