China is the world’s largest and most competitive electric vehicle market. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of “new energy vehicles”, which include both hybrids and battery electric vehicles, rose 38% last year to 9.49 million units. While the global EV market was 13.6 million last year, as research firm Rho Motion estimates, China was responsible for nearly 70% of all EV sales last year.
As the world embraces electric vehicles, affordable Chinese EVs may be poised for global dominance, a possible future that worries both traditional automakers and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Three Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers are featured in the Asia Future 30, FortuneThe list compiled in collaboration with BCG highlights the 30 companies in the region best positioned for future growth. (You can access the full list here and at Future 50—which highlights 50 companies from around the world—here).
BYD, the electric vehicle giant backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is perhaps the most famous of the three. The company, which started as a battery maker, dethroned Tesla in the final quarter of last year as the world’s top seller of battery electric vehicles.
Also on the list are two Chinese electric vehicle startups, Nio and Li Auto, both aimed at the premium end of the market, competing with brands such as US-based Tesla.
Yet the three companies are just some of about 100 electric vehicle manufacturers in China. Beijing has encouraged the development of the electric vehicle sector since the early 2010s, distributing subsidies to both manufacturers and consumers.
The sheer volume of manufacturers makes China the most competitive EV market in the world: there were once up to 500 EV companies in China, but competition has driven consolidation. Most EV makers are still loss-making, meaning more consolidation could occur as companies exit the market.
To make matters worse, there could be an oversupply problem just as the pace of growth in China’s electric vehicle market shows signs of slowing.
What distinguishes these companies from each other and how will they meet the challenge of a more competitive electric vehicle market? Fortune dives into these three EV stars to say more about what sets them apart from the competition.
BYD
Wang Chuanfu founded BYD, or “Build Your Dreams,” in 1995 not as a car company, but as a manufacturer of batteries, specifically for cell phones. The company expanded into the automotive sector in 2003 after acquiring Xi’an Tsinchuan Automobile, a small automaker; two years later it launched its first vehicle, an internal combustion engine car called the F3.
In 2008, BYD debuted its first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the F3DM. That same year, Berkshire Hathaway invested $230 million in the electric vehicle maker. Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner Charlie Munger called Wang a “combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch” in a 2009 article. Fortune interview.
BYD is now an established and dominant player in the Chinese electric vehicle market. The company, which sells both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, is routinely among the top monthly sellers of electric vehicles in the country.
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BYD has successfully integrated operations vertically that can increase margins, even to having its own ship to export its cars. Its history as a battery maker also gives it an advantage: BYD has in-house battery technology that it advertises as a safer option than the lithium-ion batteries used in most electric vehicles.
“They had a market line that their batteries never caught fire. It was quite eye-catching,” says Ding Yuqian, head of China automotive research at HSBC. He points out that BYD is one of the few electric vehicle makers in China to produce its own batteries, which gives it a competitive advantage over its competitors.
After conquering the Chinese market, BYD is now looking to expand overseas. The electric vehicle maker has entered at least 58 overseas markets including Germany, Japan, Australia and Thailand. The company is also building manufacturing facilities in Thailand and Brazil and has committed to building factories in Hungary and Indonesia as well.
Its aggressive push for global expansion has brought some regulatory backlash. BYD is one of a few Chinese electric vehicle makers targeted by the European Union in an anti-subsidy investigation, which alleges the company receives an “unfair” level of subsidies from the Chinese government. (BYD, for its part, says it’s simply better managed than its European competitors)
The company sold 3.02 million vehicles in 2023, beating its sales target and surpassing Tesla in battery electric vehicle sales. (BYD surpassed Tesla much earlier by including the former’s hybrid cars). An estimate released by BYD in January said the company expects full-year 2023 net profit to reach 31 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), which would represent an 85% year-over-year jump .
Li Auto
Electric vehicle startup Li Auto, founded in 2015, is backed by some of China’s biggest tech giants, such as Meituan and ByteDance. The company debuted on the Nasdaq in 2020. Its founder Li Xiang launched the company after two decades in the internet industry and had previously created Autohome, an online platform for Chinese consumers to buy cars.
Li has taken a different tack than other Chinese EV startups, focusing on plug-in hybrids rather than pure EVs. Hybrids can be powered by both gasoline and electricity and are often positioned as a transitional technology to encourage skeptics concerned about autonomy. The decision may have worked: Li Auto surpassed 10,000 model sales in just six months after launching its first vehicle model in December 2019.
Li Auto, often called a competitor to Tesla, targets the premium market in China. Unlike BYD models aimed at the mass market, Li Auto’s offerings are more niche, such as sport utility vehicles or larger multipurpose vehicles aimed at wealthier Chinese consumers with larger families.
Qilai Shen—Bloomberg/Getty Images
The company only recently entered the battery-electric vehicle space with its Li Mega, the startup’s recently announced minivan. Li Auto launched four new models this year undertaking a multi-product strategy.
HSBC’s Ding believes Li Auto’s shift to battery electric vehicles will work for the company in the long term as the cost of batteries falls. Consumers may also appreciate Li Auto’s investment in fast charging capabilities. The new Li Mega has a range of 500 kilometers with a 12-minute charge.
In 2023, Li Auto sold 376,030 vehicles, an increase of more than 180% compared to the previous year. Unlike its competitors, Li Auto has no plans to cut prices, pledging to release cars above the 200,000 yuan ($27,800) price threshold, which is traditionally the limit between mass-market and premium models.
The company is also investing heavily in autonomous driving, with company president Donghui Ma predicting that self-driving cars will be ready for mass acceptance in a few years.
No
Nio was born in 2014, after its founding by Chinese businessman William Li. The company has attracted support from major Chinese and global investors, including Tencent, Temasek and Lenovo. The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018.
The electric vehicle startup has also attracted state-backed investors. In 2020, Nio sold a 17% stake to the municipal government of Hefei city in eastern China. (The government cashed out a year later, earning a return of more than 500 percent). Then, last year, Nio got a $2.2 billion investment from CYVN, an investment fund controlled by the Abu Dhabi government.
Qilai Shen—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Nio, like Li Auto, positions itself as a premium brand. But the company is focusing more on research and development, design and user experience. For example, it has talked about its ambitions with AI-assisted driving and launched a Nio phone for use with its cars. The phone can be used to make the car drive itself to the user’s location or to initiate self-parking.
But beyond a premium user experience and elegant design, Nio is experimenting with a different business model: battery replacement and leasing. The company has invested in a battery swapping network that allows drivers to quickly power their car by replacing the power cell, rather than waiting for the vehicle to recharge.
Nio is also promoting a battery leasing option, where customers can instead rent the power cell and reduce the cost of their car by about 70,000 yuan ($9,858). A considerable part of the cost of a vehicle, around 40%, is absorbed by the battery.
It’s a unique and perhaps risky approach, Ding says. “This business model doesn’t see a lot of duplication within other EV companies,” she says. “A trading post might be a little more CapEx heavy in the early stage.”
Even as Nio is trying to stand out technologically, the company needs to convince investors that its finances are trending in the right direction.
Nio posted a net loss of 20.72 billion yuan ($2.88 billion) in 2023, 43.5% higher than the previous year. The company delivered 160,038 vehicles in 2023, an increase of 30.7% from the previous year. The company plans to launch a mass-market brand in May.
The future of Asia 30, created in a partnership between Fortune and BCG, highlights 30 companies across Asia that are best prepared for future growth. You can find the list here.
Fortune will host the first Fortune Innovation Forum in Hong Kong from March 27-28. Experts, investors and leaders of the world’s largest companies will meet to discuss “New strategies for growth”, that is, how companies can best seize opportunities in a rapidly evolving world.