Chinese cars are on the rise in the Netherlands: cheaper, but also raising concerns about cyber risks

More and more Dutch people are buying a Chinese car. And the Chinese car market has recently also become active in Drenthe. BYD has started a garage and showroom in Meppel, the first branch of a Chinese car brand in the Northern Netherlands. The advance is accompanied by concerns.

Last year, 8,266 cars from China were sold in the Netherlands. Think of brands such as Aiways, Nio, Xpeng and the most popular is Lynk & Co. The rise of Chinese car brands is mainly visible in an overview of the top ten car brands with the largest sales increase in the Netherlands. This does not include the Chinese Zeekr, from which cars were purchased in the Netherlands for the first time last year: 95.

The growing Chinese car market in the Netherlands has now also reached the House of Representatives. “They are high-tech cars of excellent quality and are extremely cheap. It is almost impossible to compete with them,” said Jan Paternotte, party leader of D66 during a debate last month. “They have all kinds of cameras on the inside and outside. The cars are all connected to the internet. I don’t know how vulnerable that is.”

During the debate, D66, together with the CDA and VVD, came up with a proposal in which the government is requested to conduct an analysis in the short term into the risks of electric cars from China for national security. If these risks exist, the parties want the government to look into area bans for these electric cars. “We keep Chinese companies out of crucial infrastructure for good reasons, but in the meantime we allow these Chinese electric data vacuum cleaners to drive around undisturbed,” Derk Boswijk responds on behalf of the CDA. “Should we still allow Chinese cars to drive around on Defense sites or government buildings?”

This proposal was adopted by a majority in the House of Representatives. Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that a lot of attention is paid to cyber risks of cars. “The EU sets strict requirements for this.”

One explanation for the increasingly popular cars is the price. Chinese electric cars are generally cheaper. On average, an electric car cost 52,919 euros last year, but you pay a lot less for the cheapest new BYDs. This is partly because BYD has almost the entire production process in its own hands. But it is also because the Chinese government gives subsidies to manufacturers.