Tesla
and
BYD
are dominating the Chinese electric-vehicle market. So it’s understandable, then, that a company keen to join the race–like
Lucid
–should want to take its time to make it count.
Lucid
(ticker: LCID) is “exploring” selling its cars in China, a senior executive said at Germany’s IAA Mobility event Tuesday. The U.S. EV start-up said in June that it intends to expand into China. However, chief engineer Eric Bach said there’s still no date for its entry into the market, stressing the importance of getting its Chinese expansion right.
“If you enter China on the wrong terms, you can make a lot of mistakes,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
BYD (1211. Hong Kong) is the market leader in China, followed by
Tesla,
(TSLA) in what has become a two-horse race. BYD sold more than 700,000 electrified vehicles in the second quarter, with the vast majority in China, up nearly 100% from the same period a year ago.
Tesla doesn’t report sales geographically but its second-quarter figure is likely around 155,000 cars sold in China, a 70% jump.
Combined second quarter deliveries for
Li Auto
(LI),
NIO
(
NIO
) and
XPeng
(XPEV), totaled 133,258 units.
Just because BYD and Tesla are winning, doesn’t mean there’s no hope for Lucid. The fast-growing nature of the market means it makes sense to get involved.
“It’s going to be likely the world’s largest and fastest adopting EV market as we can see… It’s something we are exploring, we are investing in,” Bach said.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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