On October 14th local time, the week-long 2024 Paris International Auto Show officially kicked off. Unlike the absence of Japanese brands such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, as well as luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz, Chinese automakers actively participated in the exhibition and responded positively despite the backdrop of the European Union's increased taxes on Chinese electric vehicles, seeking to "break through against the wind" in the European market.

It is reported that this Paris Auto Show brought together 48 car brands from local and global sources, among which 9 are Chinese brands, including Hongqi, GAC Group, SAIC Maxus, Dongfeng Fengxing, AITO, BYD, Zero Run, and Skyworth, accounting for about one-fifth of the total number of exhibiting brands, almost on par with the French brands that are playing at home.

Blue Whale News noticed that at this Paris Auto Show, many Chinese automaker CEOs traveled thousands of miles to personally promote and support their own brands, such as GAC Group's General Manager Feng Xingya, who delivered a speech entirely in English during the press conference, interspersed with one or two newly learned French phrases; Zero Run Automobile founder Zhu Jiangming, Skyworth Automobile founder Huang Hongsheng, Dongfeng Liuzhou Automobile Co., Ltd. General Manager Lin Changbo, BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke, and other CEOs also led their teams to the scene.

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Continuing the trend of "bosses rolling up their sleeves and CEOs spending money" seen at this year's Beijing Auto Show and Chengdu Auto Show, the Chinese automaker CEOs have once again gone overseas to roll up their sleeves at this Paris Auto Show.

The Paris Auto Show, which originated in 1898, is the world's first automobile exhibition and is one of the world's five major auto shows, alongside the German Munich Auto Show, Geneva Auto Show, North American Auto Show, and Tokyo Auto Show.

According to a recent article by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the aforementioned world's five major auto shows have been facing their own difficulties to varying degrees in recent years due to multiple factors. Among them, the Geneva Auto Show, which was a "cold" in February 2024, quietly withdrew and officially announced its cessation on May 31st. The Munich Auto Show is currently regarded as the most successful transformation and the most promising prospect among the five major auto shows.

In the eyes of the industry, behind the accelerated transformation of international auto shows, Chinese automakers are becoming regular visitors. Taking the 2023 Munich Auto Show as an example, its highlights, in addition to various innovative high exhibition data, the scale and lineup of 75 Chinese automobile companies participating in the exhibition set a historical record for Chinese companies participating in overseas auto shows.

Continuing the trend of last year's Munich Auto Show, Chinese automakers accounted for one-fifth of the total number of exhibiting brands at this Paris Auto Show, during which new cars, new strategies, and new technologies were continuously released with the personal involvement of various automaker bosses and CEOs.Among them, BYD brought the "Sealion 07" electric vehicle, planning to soon enter the European market; GAC's first global strategic model, the second-generation AION V, was officially released in the European market; Hongqi highlighted the EH7 and EHS7 models at its booth, among others.

On the Zero Run booth, its all-new Series B and the first global model of Series B, the B10, made its world debut, with the C16, C10, T03, and the new B10 also appearing together.

Zhu Jiangming stated that Zero Run's all-new Series B is an important part of Zero Run's global strategy. The Zero Run Series B is based on Zero Run's latest LEAP 3.5 technical architecture, featuring an 8295 chip intelligent cockpit, 8650 smart driving chip + lidar high-level intelligent driving, and collaborated with Stellantis Group's Maserati team for chassis tuning.

He Xiaopeng announced the pre-sale price of the Xiaopeng P7+ at the Paris Motor Show after holding back for 4 days, starting at 209,800 yuan.

Behind the EU tariff storm, Chinese car companies seek breakthroughs through multiple paths

It is worth noting that shortly before the Paris Motor Show, on the 4th of this month, representatives of EU member states voted to pass the final draft of the EU Commission's anti-subsidy case against electric vehicles from China, proposing to impose a final anti-subsidy duty on electric vehicles originating from China. This move was immediately opposed by many parties, including the three major German car manufacturers, Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW Group.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce expressed at that time that China firmly opposed the EU's unfair, non-compliant, and unreasonable protectionist practices in this case and firmly opposed the EU's imposition of anti-subsidy duties on Chinese electric vehicles.

The general industry consensus is that the EU and the US impose trade protection on their own cars precisely because they are wary of China's leading advantages in technology, products, and the industrial chain of electric vehicles. Cui Dongshu, the secretary-general of the Passenger Car Association, previously stated that since China's accession to the WTO, it has encountered hundreds of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations, but none of these have dealt a fatal blow to our country's related industries. Currently, new energy vehicles face challenges in regions such as Europe, and we also view them as temporary pressures.

Indeed, at this Paris Motor Show, despite the sword of high tariffs imposed by the EU hanging overhead, Chinese car companies, while criticizing this move, are also seeking breakthroughs through multiple paths and methods, such as win-win cooperation and considering overseas factories.

At this Paris Motor Show, GAC Group officially released the "European Market Plan," planning to initially enter some European countries with its products within the year and to achieve full coverage of the European market by 2028, fully meeting the diverse needs of European users. At the same time, GAC is actively promoting the construction of a localized service network, aiming to complete the construction of a European transit warehouse by 2025 to improve the efficiency of spare parts supply. By 2028, it will gradually establish a service guarantee system covering most of the European national markets."In today's world where the global automotive industry is accelerating its restructuring, we hope to bring more choices to European consumers' mobility life with an open and humble attitude, through win-win cooperation with the European industry and integration into the local market," said Feng Xingya. He indicated that the company will expand from market development, green mobility, service networks to cultural integration, and actively explore the establishment of a technology center in Europe in the future, with a long-term and win-win cooperation philosophy, to build a three-dimensional local ecosystem.

At the Zero Run Automobile Paris Auto Show launch, as one of the important shareholders of Zero Run Automobile, the global CEO of Stellantis Group, Carlos Tavares, and the Chief Operating Officer of China, Olivier, both attended to support Zero Run. Carlos Tavares emphasized the significance of the cooperation between Zero Run Automobile and Stellantis Group, and he also stated that in the future, Stellantis Group will continue to support the global expansion of Zero Run Automobile.

Public information shows that in May of this year, Zero Run Automobile and Stellantis Group jointly established Zero Run International, which is committed to promoting Zero Run models to the global market. According to the progress of global expansion disclosed by Zero Run Automobile, currently, Zero Run International has more than 200 dealers in 13 European countries and is rapidly expanding, with the goal of establishing 500 sales points in Europe by the end of 2025. It plans to expand its business to the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and South America from the fourth quarter of 2024.

In addition, news about Chinese car companies building factories in Europe has been emerging, including GAC, Geely, BYD, Dongfeng, and other car companies that have previously been rumored to invest in local factories.

In August of this year, at the Geely Automobile 2024 mid-year performance release, Geely Holding Group CEO Li Donghui stated that Geely Holding has long been involved in global layout. The next step for the European region, Geely Holding will definitely have diverse market and capacity layout arrangements, such as using Volvo, LEVC, Lotus factories or cooperating with other global partners to flexibly complete capacity planning and deployment.

"At present, EU tariffs are very high, coupled with high freight costs, which has caused great difficulties for the entire overseas market. Zero Run must seek opportunities to achieve localization," Zhu Jiangming also said in an interview, Zero Run Automobile will achieve localized production in the European market through contract manufacturing.