China is rapidly becoming one of the largest sources of new cars for Australian buyers with Chinese carmakers’ increasing dominance of electric vehicle sales in their home market potentially accelerating the transition off fossil-fuel powered transport. In 2022, sales of Chinese-made vehicles in Australia totalled 122,845 units, a 61.1% increase on the previous year, according to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries data. In December, imports from China were more than double a year earlier. The increase made China the fourth-largest import source, narrowing the gap with larger rivals. Cars sourced…
Tag: Automotive industry
Star-crossed: Mercedes faces dilemma over dependence on Russia and China
A brand new, gleaming Mercedes vehicle rolls off the production line roughly every three minutes at the carmaker’s Rastatt plant in south-western Germany. A total of 185,000 of its upmarket A-Class, B-Class and all-electric EQA cars were assembled here last year in the factory, close to the French border. They are then taken by road, rail and ship to their new owners, perhaps to zip through European capitals, Chinese cities, or along California’s coastal roads. Mercedes-Benz Group (MBG) produces hundreds of thousands such vehicles a year from eight German factories:…