Some Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firms, which boasts advantageous manufacturing capabilities globally, are leveraging this advantage to export pre-integrated chassis, rather than whole cars, to overseas markets.
In 2023, nearly eight million electric vehicles were sold in China, while local brands were launching new models every other month.
"The development cycle, which was traditionally four to five years, but this has been, in China, significantly reduced to two to three years," said Cui Dong, managing director of Boston Consulting Group.
Following the EV boom, innovative products and solutions have been springing up in China. A fine example is the pre-integrated EV chassis made by Chinese company U Power Tech, whose target customers are start-up EV brands who aim to roll out their own models to the market. By using a standardized chassis, their clients can focus more on designing the car's exterior looks and interior experiences, thus saving time and money for developing proprietary mobility systems.
"We are exactly ready to provide more global standard products for our OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to make their products more standard and cheaper, to save a lot of research and development costs and pre-investments, and meanwhile, shorten their development time to ensure that their products meet the market demand in a better way," said Paul Li, founder and CEO of U Power Tech.
The U Power Tech has delivered its first batch of products to an American start-up EV brand called Olympian Motors in 2024.
Their products are also on display at the ongoing Auto China 2024 in Beijing, which have caught the eyes of Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL), the world's largest EV battery maker.
"In a way of 'building around the battery,' we will simultaneously develop our most advanced battery technologies to make cheaper and more cost-effective batteries with the highest energy density and the fastest charging speed, along with our chassis. This way, we can provide our consumers and clients with chassis technologies combined with the latest battery technologies," said Cai Jianyong, chief technology officer of CATL Intelligent Tech.
The new-found promise of this niche industry hinges on China's EV manufacturing expertise and the number of skilled workers that the country is known for.
"We do see the efficiency is very high, and also the supply chain, including the manufacturing capacity, is very flexible," Li said.
China exported over 1.2 million electric vehicles in 2023, an increase of 77 percent year on year.
Chinese EV firms aim for global chassis market
