Taipei, Taiwan – Earlier this year, electric car enthusiast Anders Berner eagerly opened the door of a BYD Seal to take the sedan on a test drive outside the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Berner was already impressed by how far Chinese EV makers like BYD Auto had come in a short time.
“Many Chinese EVs are made with excellent materials and have been put together well – they are high-quality cars,” Berner, a mechanical engineer by trade, told Al Jazeera.
“And in terms of battery technology for EVs, Chinese companies are leading the field.”
Berner is among those who believe that Chinese EVs have the qualities needed to become the dominant player in the global car market.
Compared with Western brands, Chinese EVs have a leg-up in terms of affordability.
In the European Union, Chinese EVs typically sell for 20 percent less than EU-made models, according to the European Commission.
Chinese battery maker CATL, which supplies Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW as well as Chinese EV makers, alone supplies about 40 percent of the world’s EV batteries and in late April unveiled the first battery with a driving range of more than 1,000 kilometres on a single charge.
Chinese EVs are increasingly making their mark overseas.
Shenzhen-based BYD sold 525,409 EVs across all markets during the final quarter of last year to become the world’s biggest electric car company, beating Tesla’s 484,507 units.
China narrowly failed to overtake Japan as the world’s largest car exporter…
