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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Amy Hawkins

Battery power: how China could take charge of the electric vehicle market

A modern hatchback car at a launch event
Shenzhen-based BYD makes one of the most advanced EV batteries in the world, used in Teslas and Toyotas as well as its own cars. Photograph: Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson/AAP

If you bought an electric vehicle in the UK this year, there’s a good chance it was an MG4. The fully electric hatchback, which launched in 2022, sold 5,200 units in the first three months of this year, the second-best selling EV behind Tesla’s Model Y.

With prices starting at about £27,000, it is also substantially cheaper than the Tesla at £45,000. And while MG is one of Britain’s most famous car brands – with a century of carmaking in Birmingham until MG Rover’s 2005 collapse – the secret to its newfound success comes from China. Since 2007, the company has been owned, and the cars made, by SAIC, China’s largest carmaker.

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