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Even in a car market as EV-crazy as China’s, some auto executives aren’t completely convinced by electrification.
Gui Shengyue, CEO of Geely Automobile Holdings, one of China’s largest automakers, believes that internal combustion engine (ICE) cars are going to be a key part of the company’s business. “As a carmaker, you will lose a profit growth engine if you do not make petrol cars,” Gui told the South China Morning Post in an interview published Wednesday, noting that EVs “do not entirely reflect” the car market.
Geely Auto sold 1.97 million cars in the first 11 months of 2024, close to its annual sales target of 2 million. Around 777,000 of those sales were “new energy vehicles,” a Chinese term that includes both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
While some of its electrified models are performing well with Chinese consumers, Geely is still dwarfed by the biggest player in China’s EV market—BYD, the market leader, which sold 3.8 million new energy vehicles between January and November.
Caution on going all in on EVs
Gui isn’t the only car executive to be cautious over the EV shift.
Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda is a long skeptic of the push for battery-powered electric vehicles, instead supporting a “multi-pathway” approach that includes hybrid engines and ICE cars that run on alternative fuels.
Other global automakers are scaling back their ambitious EV plans as demand cools. In May, Volkswagen said it would produce more plug-in hybrids in response to slower demand for battery EVs. In July, GM walked back its production target of 1 million EVs by the end of next year. Ford also shrunk its EV ambitions in August, canceling plans for an electric SUV.
Still, Gui’s skepticism is novel in China, whose car industry has radically shifted to embrace EVs. China accounted for 70% of all EV sales in November, according to data from research firm Rho Motion.
Last year, China overtook Japan as the world’s largest auto exporter, in part owing to its affordable EVs.
Yet petrol cars are still a major part of China’s car sector. In addition to fulfilling domestic demand, Chinese carmakers are exporting petrol cars to markets that have yet to embrace EVs, like the Middle East, Latin America, and, increasingly, Russia. Chinese car manufacturers, including Geely, have rushed to sell petrol cars to Russian consumers to replace Western automakers that left after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Geely’s Gui still expects petrol cars to change with the times. Petrol cars will “have to be fuel-efficient to support the global efforts to reduce emissions,” he told the South China Morning Post. “They will be made more intelligent, like electric cars,” he continued, referring to the new technology found in China-made EVs.