Volkswagen could not gain the momentum it wanted in the electric car market. VW, which entered the market late and could not focus enough on the electric car market, became a partner of Chinese Xpeng last year. Xpeng, which is slowly becoming popular in the Chinese electric car market, has started preparations for a European factory.
Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng may turn to South East Europe for a European factory
The EU has recently started to demand high taxes for Chinese electric car manufacturers with the laws it has enacted. Again, Canada recently announced that it will impose a 100 percent tax on electric cars coming from China. Here, manufacturers are responding to this taxation, which was initiated to prevent the influx of cheap Chinese electric cars in the world, by moving factories.
After BYD’s decision to open a factory in Turkey, Xpeng, which VW became a partner with last year, is now looking to open a factory in Europe. Xpeng’s CEO He Xiaopeng announced that they are in the process of choosing a location in Europe. The Xpeng-VW partnership is among the factors that pave the way for the brand to establish a European factory.
He Xiaopeng announced that they are researching countries with lower labor and costs among EU countries. Neither Xpeng nor the CEO gave a clear country name on this subject. However, estimates suggest that the research is being conducted in countries such as Bulgaria and Romania.
Xpeng’s EU factory will also allow VW to be much closer to its partner. Xpeng is a developing electric car brand. However, its sales in the first quarter of 2024 were not as expected. Although BYD is a weak brand compared to brands like Chery, it is looking to make a move with its EU factory.
Xpeng is likely to come to countries like Romania and Bulgaria in Eastern Europe due to tax and labor costs.
As we said, the brand delivered 50 thousand cars in its 2024 first quarter reports. This is the number of cars delivered by giant brands like BYD in just one month. In this sense, Xpeng, the VW partnership and the European factory attack can change the whole picture.
So what do you think the EU, the US, Canada, and the UK will respond to this game change by Chinese electric car companies? We are waiting for your comments.
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