elmercantil — 2023-02-20
News from ECG
The penetration of Chinese electric vehicles in Europe has skyrocketed in 2022. In this context, Spain has not been an exception and imports of new electric vehicles with only electric propulsion manufactured in China have been registered for a value of €1,138.07m, a figure that contrasts with the €19.21m of 2021. Practically all these cars arrive by sea and do so through the port of Barcelona . In fact, 95% of Spanish imports of Chinese electric vehicles in terms of value are channeled through the Catalan port area. This percentage is situated in similar data in volume of tons, according to the Customs data collected by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.
European vehicle logistics operators predict further growth for Chinese cars in 2023
In less than a year, the Catalan venue has managed to get the Chinese giant SAIC to trust it with its Mediterranean hub for the distribution of its electric vehicles. In addition, Tesla is also disembarking its units produced in China destined for the peninsular market and part of Europe through Barcelona. Far from being a circumstantial dynamic, the entry of cars produced in the Asian giant is expected to accelerate in Europe throughout 2023, as predicted by the European Association of Finished Vehicle Logistics Operators (ECG). As they explain, it will not only be a product of the arrival of Chinese brand vehicles, but also the vehicles of European and North American automotive multinationals manufactured in Asia will have a relevant weight. European plants are carrying out their transformation to manufacture electric vehicles on a large scale, but China has a certain advantage in this regard, so flows from the Asian giant will remain bullish.
In the case of the Spanish market, purchases of new vehicles powered by electric motors from the rest of the world have registered a value of more than €2,000m in 2022. In a single year, the combined volume of the four years immediately exceeded later (2018-2021). If imports are observed from the point of view of volume in tons, it has tripled in 2022 compared to the previous year.
More than half of all electric vehicles imported by Spain come from China
China has played a major role in this paradigm shift. Vehicles produced in the Asian country represented 2.5% of the total value in 2021, while, a year later, that percentage has grown to 54.7%, according to data from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. If the evolution is analyzed in tons, China's leadership is even more noticeable. In any case, more than half the value of the fully electric vehicles that Spain buys abroad come from Chinese car plants.
“Many Chinese vehicles or vehicles made in China, of different brands, are entering the port of Barcelona not only for the Spanish market, which was where we traditionally acted as a gateway, but lately these players use Barcelona to distribute throughout Europe. , either by train or by truck”, stated the director of the Barcelona Port Authority, José Alberto Carbonell, during the recent presentation of the institution's annual results. In this regard, he also highlighted, beyond the importation of these vehicles, the role of the port in the field of transhipment: "We are talking about a transshipment that is the result of a decision taken by the manufacturer so that Barcelona is the place where this is carried out. transhipment, to be your distribution hub in Europe."