A visitor gets to grips with a Nio cabin at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in July 2024. [Photo/China Daily]

Electrification, AI systems and charging networks give the nation's automakers a growing edge over international rivals

China is the top-performing market in the global automotive transformation, driven by advances in electrification, charging infrastructure and AI-enabled driver-assistance systems, according to a new report from consultancy Roland Berger.

The 14th edition of the Automotive Disruption Radar is based on 26 industry performance metrics and responses from more than 22,000 consumers across 22 countries.

The automotive industry is undergoing a comprehensive transformation, but the pace varies across countries and regions, said Ron Zheng, a senior partner at Roland Berger and head of its automotive practice in Asia.

He added that China leads in multiple dimensions — electric vehicle market share, charging infrastructure and AI-driven technologies — and is now "quickly pulling away from other regions".

Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that 1.71 million new energy vehicles were sold in the country in October, accounting for 51.6 percent of total vehicle sales that month.

Of the NEV sales, pure EVs took the lion's share at 1.1 million units, or 33.1 percent of total vehicle sales in October, according to the CAAM.

Meanwhile, smart car cabins in China are becoming increasingly intelligent, with major gains in multimodal interfaces, AI-based intent recognition and real-time command processing, according to new research from J.D. Power and Tongji University.

China's position is reinforced by leading scores in both technology capability and infrastructure development, giving the country a commanding role in electric mobility and autonomous systems.

Roland Berger said the gap between regions is becoming increasingly stark, particularly in areas such as software and product development speed.

Chinese automakers now take just 24 to 40 months to bring new models to market, versus 48 to 60 months in Europe.

That speed is fueled by a large domestic consumer appetite for EVs — 95 percent of Chinese respondents said they would consider an EV for their next purchase — supported by dense charging networks and aggressive model rollout from local manufacturers.

While China's EV penetration rose from 22 percent to 25 percent in the past year, the European market remained stuck at 12 percent, and consumer enthusiasm in Germany, Japan and the United States declined.

Even those already driving EVs have shown lukewarm interest. Thirty-five percent of those polled in the US said they would purchase an EV again, 45 percent in Germany and 25 percent in Japan.

Car choices may be a factor. A survey by Roland Berger shows China's BYD and Wuling produced eight of the 10 best-selling EV models in 2024, with the remaining two being Tesla's Model Y and Model 3.

Roland Berger suggests the future of automakers will depend on their ability to combine strategic alliances, software expertise and readiness for market divergence.

The study describes an auto industry fragmenting into multiple regional ecosystems, each shaped by its own standards, policies and consumer patterns.

Roland Berger said China's momentum in technology and infrastructure is positioning it to leap ahead of what it calls a stagnant Europe.

That shift is also driving new interdependencies. European firms increasingly rely on Chinese partners in battery systems and autonomous technology.

They are already doing so. Volkswagen is working with Chinese automakers XPeng and SAIC to launch electric models to meet the expectations of local tech-savvy car buyers.

Other global automakers, including BMW and Toyota, are capitalizing on expertise from Chinese companies such as Momenta and DeepSeek.

The study said several distinct ecosystems are now evolving: the US, Europe, China, Japan and South Korea.

It said each is developing differently and will be impacted in different ways by the new landscape.

In addition to a dominant China and a dependent Europe, America is becoming increasingly isolated because of its protectionist policies, said Roland Berger.

Automakers in Japan and South Korea remain largely focused on their own domestic markets while exploring ways to improve their competitive edge in the new era of smart EVs, it added.