China’s electric vehicles have disrupted the order of the car industry

China’s EV industry is gaining recognition across the Pacific, with Chinese-made cars taking over the Australian auto market. Even Ford’s CEO admits that their affordable prices and high-quality experience have disrupted the order of the industry and are slowly gaining recognition globally. 

Ford Motor Company’s CEO, Jim Farley, during a recent conversation with author Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival, offered a blunt assessment of the electric vehicle (EV) industry. When he was asked about the state of China’s EV market, Farley said, “It’s the most humbling thing I have ever seen.”

Farley, who made six to seven trips to China in the past year, praised not just the scale but the quality and technological prowess of Chinese EV manufacturers.

“Seventy percent of all EVs in the world are made in China,” he noted. “They have far superior in-vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car. You get in, and your whole digital life is mirrored. No pairing. It just works.”

China is handing it to the West in EV tech

Farley stated that the reluctance of U.S. tech giants like Apple and Google to fully enter the car business is preventing Ford from matching that seamless integration.

“They decided not to go in the car business,” he said simply.

The CEO also mentioned the implications of the cost and quality of these Chinese EVs. “Their cost, their quality of vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley said. “We are in a global competition with China, and it’s not just EVs. If we lose this, we do not have a future Ford.”

Last year, Farley described Xiaomi as “an industry juggernaut” during an episode of The Fully Charged Podcast. He revealed that he had been personally driving Xiaomi’s debut model, the SU7, for six months and didn’t want to give it up.

Xiaomi has only improved since then. The company recently launched its second EV, the YU7, a luxury SUV priced at $35,000, which notably undercuts Tesla’s Model Y, which starts at $36,760.

Within days of its debut, Xiaomi received 300,000 orders for the YU7.

In August, Ford Motor Company’s CFO, John Lawler, announced that the company would shelve its plans for electric SUVs in favor of hybrid models. The switch will cost the automaker nearly $2B, but despite that, Ford shares are currently up more than 9% year to date.

China’s EVs are disrupting the Australian market

At the recent Melbourne International EV Autoshow, Chinese brands like BYD and Xpeng stole the spotlight. The BYD Shark 6, a hybrid pickup, is already in local showrooms, with other all-electric models, such as Deepal’s EO7, expected by the end of the year.

According to Riz Akhtar, the founder of EV analytics firm Carloop, the Australian market is at a turning point. “We’re moving past the early-adopter phase to early-mainstream,” Akhtar said. “The market is being turned on its head with these new brands entering.”

Six of the top 10 best-selling EVs in Australia this year are from Chinese brands, including BYD’s Atto 3, Sealion 7, and Dolphin which is priced at just A$29,990 ($20,000). Other rising contenders for best-selling EVs include Geely’s EX5 and MG’s MG4 and ZS EV.

According to BloombergNEF’s Electric Vehicle Outlook 2025, China will account for 67% of global EV sales this year, up from 65% in 2024. In Australia, nearly 50% of new passenger car sales are expected to be EVs by 2030, compared to just 7.8% at the end of 2024.

“Brand perception is the hurdle,” Jason Clarke, the CEO of TrueEV, Xpeng’s local distributor, admitted. “People still think Chinese equals cheap. That’s why we need people in the cars — experiencing them.”

Clarke said the Xpeng G6, a mid-sized SUV priced at A$55,000, is gaining traction in Australia. Two larger models, the G9 SUV and X9 people-mover, are expected to enter the market later this year.

Toyota and Ford currently dominate overall vehicle sales in Australia, with the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and Toyota RAV4 leading in May, but the influx of affordable Chinese EVs could erode their dominance over time.

Ray Evans, the CEO of Future Drive AutoShows, believes the shift is already underway. “We’ve gone through the tipping point,” Evans said. He’s now organizing a Sydney EV show in August focused largely on electric and hybrid pickups.

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