{"id":64322,"date":"2026-06-09T12:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/64322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:55:10","slug":"opinion-chinas-ev-giants-are-breathing-new-life-into-europes-ailing-car-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/64322\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | China\u2019s EV giants are breathing new life into Europe\u2019s ailing car industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">From Sunderland to Spain, Chinese manufacturers are revitalising idle factories and investing where traditional European carmakers are pulling back.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese carmakers are rapidly transforming from export-oriented manufacturers into embedded participants in Europe\u2019s automotive industrial base, a shift <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/china-business\/article\/3346472\/carpool-chinese-giants-use-idled-foreign-plants-fuel-global-expansion?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">increasingly visible<\/a> across both continental Europe and Britain.What began as a strategy focused on exporting low-cost electric vehicles (EVs) has evolved into a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/china-business\/article\/3355982\/chinese-carmakers-byd-chery-chart-80-growth-overseas-ev-demand-spikes?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">broader industrial expansion<\/a> involving local assembly, manufacturing partnerships, research and development (R&amp;D) centres, supply chain investments and production facilities.Recent developments involving China\u2019s <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/chery-automobile?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chery Automobile<\/a> and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/saic-motor?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">SAIC Motor<\/a> show that Chinese manufacturers are no longer merely competing with European carmakers; they are increasingly becoming partners in the revitalisation of Europe\u2019s struggling automotive sector.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The latest and perhaps most significant development in Britain is the preliminary agreement between Chery and Nissan to explore production of Chery vehicles at Nissan\u2019s Sunderland facility. Under the memorandum of understanding, Chery passenger vehicles could begin rolling off production lines in Sunderland in the first half of next year, using spare capacity at Britain\u2019s largest automotive plant, which employs about 6,000 workers and has been operating well below its potential.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The agreement reflects a broader trend in which established European and Japanese manufacturers seek new ways to maximise underused factories while Chinese companies seek local manufacturing footprints to support expansion in Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Sunderland to Spain, Chinese manufacturers are revitalising idle factories and investing where traditional European carmakers are pulling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1011,8131,10405,81,9943,39,4,33834,1731,14033,1066,33983,10831,33833,108,1892,22649],"class_list":["post-64322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-britain","tag-byd","tag-chery","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-galicia","tag-geely","tag-great-wall-motor","tag-liverpool","tag-mg","tag-nissan","tag-saic","tag-spain","tag-sunderland","tag-xpeng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}