China is exporting so many EVs that it needs more ships – a lot more
Chinese EV makers are looking to export electric vehicles by the tens of thousands around the globe, but they need a lot more car-carrying vessels to make that happen. Demand is so high that the country is on track to amass what will be the world’s fourth-largest fleet in a few short years, with new trade routes being created especially for Chinese EVs.
China now has the world’s eighth-largest shipping fleet with 33 car-carrying ships, according to data from shipping consultants Veson Nautical and reported by Reuters. By comparison, Japan tops the list with 284 ships, followed by Norway, which has 102. South Korea comes in third with 72 and the Isle of Man, which has 61 registered ships, in fourth.
Yet, the current state of affairs is rapidly changing, with Chinese companies putting 47 ships on order, which accounts for a quarter of all orders globally. Customers buying the ships include SAIC Motor, Chery, BYD, as well as shipping companies COSCO and China Merchants “on behalf of Chinese automakers,” reports Reuters.
“After this armada has been delivered to China, the Chinese controlled car carrier fleet will jump from current 2.4% to 8.7%,” Veson analyst Andrea de Luca told Reuters. “We expect to see new trade routes established almost exclusively for Chinese OEMs.”
China has already overtaken Japan as the world’s largest auto exporter, with BYD alone exporting more than 240,000 vehicles last year, making up about 80% of its global sales. This year, it plans to export up to 400,000 EVs. The EV giant already has one purpose-built 7,000-EV-capacity ship and plans to add seven more such vessels in two years.
Tesla and Volkswagen have also expanded their exports from China, which of course leverages the country’s cheaper supply chain to their advantage.
Cars are typically transported by sea using roll-on/roll-off (RORO) ships that allow vehicles to be driven directly on rather than using a crane. But these ships have been in short supply in recent years, with older vessels being retired and new ship orders down due to both the 2008 financial crisis and the industry upgrade to less-polluting fuels, reports MIT Technology Review.
In Japan, Nissan and Toyota each have fleets of RORO ships that can carry tens of thousands of cars, but for China, its domestic car-carrier vessels have represented a tiny portion of the global shipping capacity – only 2.8% – leaving Chinese companies few options for exporting their cars.
As a result, access to RORO ships has cost a fortune, with the daily rate to charter ships reaching $115,000 a day. That’s more than seven times higher than the price in 2019. So companies have turned to just buying the ship themselves.
Electrek’s Take
This is all happening as China is under scrutiny for what the European Commission says is unfairly subsidizing EVs exporting to Europe, with Washington keeping a close eye. For one, in China, the state subsidies paired with the economic slowdown have created a massive pileup of oversupply, with companies looking to export and clear out inventories. Hence, cheap EVs coming your way (well, not in the US, at least not yet anyway). Still, steep import tariffs await on European borders.
And let’s peek under the hood a bit too: Chinese President Xi “had accelerated an industrial drive centered on EVs, semiconductors and artificial intelligence and renewable energy” to try to compete with the US, China correspondent Lingling Wei told Reuters. But behind the scenes “is a struggling overall economy that many economists say could see even greater waste down the road because of the state-led industrial drive,” she said.
Not to mention, the shipping industry is currently facing its own carbon emissions reckoning and needs to radically decarbonize in the coming years to meet Paris climate goals. It’s currently sixth largest greenhouse gas emitter worldwide, which puts it between Japan and Germany, according to the World Bank. So moving EVs all over the world certainly comes at a price, environmentally, of course.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
A new report states that Tesla will pause part of new Model Y production at Gigafactory Shanghai for 3 weeks to upgrade the lines.
The shutdown will extend beyond the regular Chinese New Year.
The Chinese New Year is technically 2 weeks long, but the official holiday lasts a week, during which significant parts of the country’s industries shut down.
That includes the auto industry and Tesla, but it looks like the American automaker plans to do things a bit differently this year after having just started production of its updated Model Y at Gigafactory Shanghai.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Tesla plans to shut down part of its new Model Y production lines from around January 22 to February 14.
In comparison, Tesla only plans to shut down production of the Model 3, the only other vehicle produced at the plant, from January 26 to February 3.
Tesla only recently started production of the updated version of its best-selling electric SUV. The report states that the automaker will take advantage of this extended Lunar New Year shutdown to upgrade parts of the production lines in order to streamline and ramp up production capacity.
The automaker delivered about 480,000 Model Ys in China in 2024 – up about 5% year-over-year.
Reports claimed that Tesla received over 50,000 orders for the updated vehicle version in the first 24 hours of the unveiling.
Electrek’s Take
It makes sense. Over the last few weeks, Tesla has basically been running a pilot of production of the upgraded version, which is entirely different from the previous version, but there are enough differences that new parts and processes can create bottlenecks.
Tesla likely found ways to optimize production during that time and now will implement it during this extended shutdown.
We will try to keep track of the Model Y production and rollout in China as any delay or production issues can be extremely impactful, considering the Model Y is the world’s best-selling EV and China is the biggest EV market.
Any kind of issue there can be extremely impactful on Tesla and the broader EV market.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
American Honda shared a business outlook for 2025 during a recent briefing with the media. In terms of electrification, the next 12 months for Honda will be much of the same: facelifting tried-and-true ICE models like the CR-V and Passport. However, there was one exciting piece of news from Honda on the BEV front—the automaker has confirmed it will begin US production of an Acura RSX EV.
Honda and its premium sub-brand Acura, for that matter, are getting more and more coverage on Electrek’s homepage thanks to the combined efforts in adding new BEV models… although that transition has still been relatively slow compared to other OEMs.
Nevertheless, Honda launched the all-electric Prologue, which has found quick success with US consumers. Shortly thereafter, Acura launched the ZDX, which sits atop the same Ultium platform as Prologue, provided through a partnership with GM.
Honda has since backed out of that partnership—at least the part where GM provides vehicle architecture—and has been developing its own in-house platform that will one day power its new 0 Series lineup of BEVs. These originally debuted at CES 2024 and remerged at this year’s event as prototypes—and now they’re white! They will also feature a new proprietary vehicle OS called ASIMO (more on that below).
While we await the arrival of those Honda BEVs, we can expect to see a new Acura model hit the market first, based on an SUV called the Performance EV Concept, which debuted at Monterey Car Week this past August. At the time, the Acura Design Studio described the concept as “the evolution of Acura’s performance-focused design direction and the brand’s next all-electric model.”
That new production model didn’t have a name yet, but we did learn it would be the first BEV to debut on Honda’s new bespoke platform and the first all-electric model to roll off its assembly lines at the new Honda EV Hub in Marysville, Ohio.
Today, we learned that the Performance EV Concept has evolved into a full-fledged passenger model with a familiar name – the Acura RSX EV.
Acura brings back the “RSX” nameplate as an EV SUV
During a media briefing earlier this week, American Honda shared its 2025 outlook, led by vice president of sales, Lance Woelfer. This year’s strategy includes the production of its first original BEV in Ohio using domestically and globally sourced parts as a new hybrid model and several ICE vehicles (boo).
Woelfer confirmed that the first bespoke all-electric model coming out of Ohio will be the Acura RSX EV. This move marks the return of a notable nameplate in the Acura lineup that evolved from the original Honda Integra. The Acura RSX was sold in North America from the early- to mid-2000s and still has a decent fanbase, especially amongst fans of the Honda Integra and Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) enthusiasts.
Acura revived the Integra nameplate in 2021 as a Honda Civic-based liftback, and although that model is sharp, it remains combustion, hence why Acura has revived the RSX name as an EV model. Per Mike Langel, assistant vice president, Acura National Sales.
The nameplate pays homage to the Acura RSX with its coupe-like silhouette, but it truly represents a forward-looking approach to fun-to-drive performance. Our second all-electric SUV will solidify our EV credentials even as its ICE stablemates, the all-new ADX, RDX, MDX, TLX and Integra continue to attract new buyers to the Acura brand.
The Acura RSX EV, seen in a unique camo wrap above, looks quite sleek, but I predict Integra and RSX purists may reject this new model out of the gate because it’s undeniably an SUV, not a sporty compact like the vehicle(s) it’s named after. This reminds me of when Ford introduced the Mustang Mach-E, and brand loyalists argued, “That’s not a Mustang.” Just like the Mach-E, the Acura RSX EV represents a new generation of performance models, no matter what you call it.
The new SUV also represents a massive step for Honda and its premium brand, as the Acura RSX EV will be the first model to utilize Honda’s new EV platform and its new ASIMO OS operating system introduced at CES 2025. At the time, Honda said ASIMO will constantly update its in-vehicle software via over-the-air (OTA) updates for both the digital UX and integrated dynamics controls that will allow the automaker to deliver “a personalized ownership experience that will enhance the joy of driving.”
Acura says the RSX EV is slotted to begin development testing in real-world conditions this week ahead of planned production in Ohio later this year. We plan to visit Honda’s EV Hub later this month, so perhaps we can capture some images of where this new SUV will be built or, better yet, look at the prototype up close.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway