~60%
Of global EV sales happened in China in 2024
IEA TREND
Home / Electric Vehicles
Track 04 / 电动车
The car got rebuilt around the battery — in China first.
More EVs are sold in China than in the rest of the world combined, and the company that makes the most of them also makes the cells. Vertical integration from the mine to the showroom is rewriting the economics of the entire auto industry.
#1
Largest battery maker on earth is Chinese
CATL · SNE TREND
LFP
Low-cost chemistry China scaled to the world
CELL TREND
100+
Domestic brands in a brutal price war
CHINA KEY TRACK
The dynamics / 关键动力
It's a battery business wearing a car.
Whoever controls the cell controls the margin. China spent fifteen years building that control — now it's collecting.
01
The cell is the moat
Domestic giants dominate LFP and increasingly next-gen chemistries, owning steps from refining to pack assembly. The car is almost a delivery mechanism for the battery advantage.
02
Software-defined, fast-shipping
New brands treat the car like a phone — over-the-air updates, rapid model cycles and feature wars that legacy automakers find hard to match.
03
Export pressure and policy friction
As Chinese EVs go global, tariffs and local-content rules follow. The next chapter is where and how these brands localise abroad.
Who to watch / 关注名单
The grid.
BYD 比亚迪
CATL 宁德时代
NIO 蔚来
XPeng 小鹏
Li Auto 理想
Xiaomi EV 小米汽车
Geely 吉利
Questions answered / 问答
What people ask us about China EVs.
Why is China the leader in electric vehicles?
China is both the largest producer and the largest market for EVs, supported by a vertically integrated battery supply chain, sustained policy, ferocious domestic competition and one of the world's fastest charging-network rollouts.
Who is the biggest EV maker in China?
BYD leads by volume and has become one of the largest EV producers globally, sitting alongside NIO, XPeng, Li Auto, Xiaomi's auto unit and Geely-affiliated brands in a crowded, fast-moving field.
What makes Chinese EV batteries cheaper?
Makers like CATL and BYD scaled lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells massively and control much of the chain — from refining to packs. That integration, plus volume, pushes cost down at every step.
Will Chinese EVs take over Western markets?
Tariffs and local-content rules are slowing direct imports, so the real story is localisation — factories, partnerships and brands built for each region. Where and how that happens is what we track for our readers.
Go deeper / 深入
Follow the battery, not just the badge.
Our EV track maps chemistry, capacity and the brands fighting for the next decade of mobility.