{"id":53528,"date":"2026-07-06T00:03:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/53528\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:03:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:03:06","slug":"chinas-carmakers-are-rewriting-europes-auto-hierarchy-as-japanese-rivals-lose-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/53528\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s carmakers are rewriting Europe\u2019s auto hierarchy as Japanese rivals lose ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese carmakers are taking market share away from Japanese rivals in western Europe, pushing the latter\u2019s share to its lowest level in four decades. But uncertainties over European tariff policies<\/a> could weigh on exports from the world\u2019s second-largest economy, analysts said.Since the end of last year, Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers \u2013 from giant BYD to start-up Leapmotor<\/a> \u2013 have stepped up efforts to boost overseas sales amid weakening domestic demand and Beijing\u2019s campaign against excessive competition, with Europe one of their strategic targets.<\/p>\n

Data from the Bremen-based consultancy Schmidt Automotive Research showed those efforts had paid off, with their market share in 18 countries in western Europe surging to 10 per cent in April from only 4.9 per cent a year ago.<\/p>\n

The rising popularity of Chinese cars had also squeezed the market share of Japanese marques to 10.3 per cent in April from 11.4 per cent a year earlier, well below the up to 14.3 per cent commanded by the likes of Toyota and Nissan in 2007.<\/p>\n

As Chinese carmakers such as MG-owner SAIC Motor<\/a> planned to roll out more hybrid EV models, the share of Japanese manufacturers in western Europe was on track to sink below 10 per cent \u2013 a level not seen since the start of the 1980s, the consultancy said.<\/p>\n

The slow transition by Japanese carmakers to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hampered by limited scale because of the domestic market\u2019s lack of demand, had cost them market share, said Matthias Schmidt, a European autos analyst at the German consultancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Japanese need to bring genuinely strong BEVs to market to compete,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cThe danger is that European consumers may no longer see the nuances between Chinese and Japanese cars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese carmakers are taking market share away from Japanese rivals in western Europe, pushing the latter\u2019s share to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[373,549,35735,4210,12,3673,1958,1707,35734,5190,35736,8,17,18451,8827],"class_list":["post-53528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-asia-pacific","tag-beijing","tag-bnp-paribas","tag-byd","tag-china","tag-chinese","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-fitch-ratings","tag-geely-automobile","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-jpmorgan-chase","tag-morgan-stanley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}