EVs at a Crossroads

In 1983, Shanghai Volkswagen, a joint venture between SAIC Motor and the Volkswagen Group, rolled out the Santana brand, a car popular on the Chinese market for more than two decades. It kicked off the first boom in joint ventures in the Chinese auto industry. In 2018, after the latest round of joint venture enterprises swept the country, at least four world-leading auto giants have established joint ventures in conjunction with their Chinese counterparts. The difference now is that they are mainly focusing on the electric vehicle (EV) sector. Insiders argued that over the past 30 years, joint ventures have dominated the market but brought little advanced technology to Chinese automakers. In the EV sector, Chinese automakers have improved substantially in technology, marketing and infrastructure, and they must be cautious when initiating joint ventures with overseas auto giants.