Co-worker @rubenpriest has already told you that the Chinese came in 2022. But how and what exactly did the separate brands sell?
History repeats itself in general and therefore also in the automotive world. In the beginning you had the Germans with the Patent Motorwagen. A period followed later in which the Americans, British and French set the tone. Also because Germany was (literally) no longer allowed to participate, for reasons.
From the 1970s, the Japanese came steaming up, helped in part by the oil crisis. In the beginning they were scorned for their flimsy products. But the laughter quickly faded when the Japanese products proved to be reliable and economical. Japan became synonymous with cars that didn’t break. And with the NSX, GT-R, RX-7 and all those more obscure models that @willeme know all, they showed that it can also be done quickly and hot.
Then you had the South Koreans. Again, we looked a little pitying at the Hyundai Scoupe and the KIA Shuma. The South Koreans were especially good as cheap transportation. And if they gave products from other countries a KIA badge, like the unforgettable KIA Elan. And then you still had front-wheel drive. KIA is still struggling to sell Stingers. But it is the largest buyer (in the good sense of the word) of cars in the Netherlands.
But the next wave is already waiting. And then we are not talking about the Volkswagen Golf, which has only become less good for the time being with the introduction of the Golf 8. No, it concerns the Chinese Golf. Same pattern here too. Once upon a time, the Landwind, as an Opel Frontera clone, was still the target of scorn. Yes, you had an SUV before peanuts. But the thing turned out to be hopelessly unsafe. A Lynk & Co is now just a Volvo for (slightly) less. You may be driving a car of another brand made in China without knowing it. The difference in quality has visibly evaporated/evaporating.
But what about the hard numbers? Well, we’ve sorted it out. For reference: all of us Alfa Romeo sold 320 cars in the Netherlands last year.
BYD: 200 pcs
BYD will go from 51 units in 2021 to 200 units in 2022. The toko mainly puts away the Atto 3 (161) and the Tang (36). So electric SUVs, exactly what the market wants.
JAC: 7 pcs
JAC offers the IEV7, an electric SUV. The brand experienced a decline in 2022 in the Netherlands, as 19 more were sold in 2021.
LOTUS: 1 piece
A bit lame, but Volvo, LOTUS, POLESTAR (and a piece of Mercedes) are of course from Li Shufu, the man behind Geely. LOTUS sold an Emira last year. The year before, 4 Elises, 2 Exiges and an Evora were put on Dutch license plates.
Lynk & Co: 5,847 units
But then the bigger numbers. Lynk & Co sold a number of cars that Alfa Romeo can only dream of. In addition, the only model, the 02, sold a lot less in 2021 (3,297 units).
MG: 1,504 units
MG has the same numbers as last year, but in a different order. The brand goes from 1,054 units to 1,504 units, so that is still a plus of fifty percent. And almost five times what Alfa Romeo does.
NIO: 54 pcs
Recently we drove the NIO ET7. This is NIO’s runner-up at the moment with 52 units put away. The ES8 adds two more.
POLESTAR: 2,194 units
The POLESTAR 2 was registered more than 500 times in December, bringing the total to 2,194 units. The beautiful looking POLESTAR 1 was also registered 11 times in the Netherlands in 2022.
Volvo: 12,891 units
The largest Chinese was Volvo in 2022. As already mentioned in the overview of the premium Germans, it is therefore larger than Mercedes in the Netherlands. The brand did experience a decline compared to 2021, when it sold 15,957 units. The runner at Volvo is the XC40, which, however, in line with the total, was sold about 2,000 times less often. About the same number as that added to the Lynk & Co 02. Coincidence?
XPENG: 11 pcs
XPENG still has to come in. Like the NIOs, the P5 and P7 will be seen by most as ‘Tesla for less’. The brand now has a Dutch version of their site, so there is probably still room for growth here too.
Anyway, for the time being it is mainly the Geely brands that are doing well in the Netherlands. But for most brands in this list, there is still a lot of room for growth with things like an importer and dealers and so on. Are you also hungry for a Chinese car? Or do you prefer to stick to Chinese food? Let us know in the comments!
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