Chinese car brands in the spotlight at the Beijing show, where people dream about flying cars

• Sjoerd den Daas

  China correspondent

Overcapacity, sharp price drops and a looming trade war over electric cars with Europe: these are not easy times for Chinese car makers. Still, there is a lot of pressure at the Beijing auto show, where no fewer than 117 new models will be shown to the public. Carmakers are optimistic about their future.

“This is the Chinese tide,” says Lu Tian of BYD, which is presenting several new models in Beijing to great attention. “Not only the tide of domestic products, also the tide of Chinese culture and technological innovation,” Lu reads from a screen.

He is talking about guochao, as it is called in Chinese. Products with a Chinese footprint, the ‘Made in China’ of the 21st century. That Chinese electric car builders have not been sitting still is quickly becoming clear at the auto show, which has returned to Beijing for the first time since 2018 after years of Covid lockdowns.

Although foreign parties such as Volkswagen, BMW and Honda are also present at the fair, it is the Chinese automakers that have boldly taken over the wheel, with BYD in the lead. With appealing models for attractive prices. Although market share at home and abroad now seems more important than profit: more is being produced than consumers want.

This overcapacity forces electric car makers to reduce prices. Used by market leader BYD, which charges up to 20 percent less for one of its models.

Other automakers have little choice but to follow suit. Since July last year, the average profit per electric car has turned into a small loss, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs.

That doesn’t stop China’s youngest car makers from dreaming. “The future has already arrived,” laughs Xiaopeng’s Zhou Yuqing at her company’s stand at the Beijing auto show. “The biggest advantage of this vehicle is that you can drive on land, but you can also fly through the air,” she says, as the rotor blades fold. They disappear into the rear part of the car. “It’s a racing car again that you can use in the city.”

Many of the models that Chinese makers have developed so far have been upgraded drones or small passenger helicopters. That of Ehang, for example, which can be seen in Hefei, among others, in the interior of China. “An air taxi, in fact,” Li Xiaona of Ehang calls it on the runway of the city’s former airport. “In the future, you could board to fly directly to the airport or high-speed train station.”

Watch for yourself how the ‘car’ goes into the air:

This is what a Chinese flying car looks like

There is no shortage of enthusiasm among the companies. But strict rules and safety concerns mean that the flying car is only allowed to take to the air in few places. Li: “China is promoting the economy at a low level,” as the sector is called in jargon. “It does require the construction of the right infrastructure and good communication facilities.” With the exception of demonstration zones such as those in Hefei, this is hardly the case anywhere.

“The rules may not be so favorable now,” Zhou also knows. “But the support is there. Our current plan is that we will develop a number of take-off and landing points from next year.” Outside the cities, initially. “More rural areas, in more idyllic places, for example. As acceptance grows, we hope to do the same in other places, including in the city. So that you can cross the river, for example, and then continue driving.”

China Merchants Securities calculated that more than half of the flying cars come from Chinese companies. 18 percent of the models are American, 8 percent come from Germany. What helps the Chinese: the rapid development of the electric car industry, and the fact that many of the batteries are produced in China.

Xiaopeng’s flying car should go on pre-sale at the end of this year. “We hope to increase production and deliver by the end of next year,” Zhou concludes.