Hyperdrive
China's Electric-Car Mania Draws Parallels to the Dot-Com Bubble
- BAIC says shakeout to come by 2021, kill off 80% of players
- China had about 500 manufacturers of EVs registered in March
Attendees walk past a sketch of a WEY vehicle during Auto Shanghai 2019 show in April 2019.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
China’s electric-vehicle market is so overcrowded it’s starting to resemble the dot-com bubble that burst at the turn of the century, the industry’s top producer warned, sounding the latest alarm for an market stacked with about 500 players.
There are many similarities between China’s EV market today and the crash two decades ago, when all kinds of random companies sought to become internet success stories, Lian Qingfeng, executive vice president at Beijing Electric Vehicle Co., said at the company’s Beijing headquarters on Wednesday. As many as 80% of the current startups could disappear, with a big shakeout coming within a couple of years, he said.