Chinese outbound investment in EVs likely set new record in 2023

Chinese outbound foreign direct investment along the electric vehicle value chain likely set a new record in 2023, a report from Rhodium Group showed, as western economies step up scrutiny of China’s production-focussed, debt driven development model. Growing alarm over Chinese industrial overcapacity flooding the European Union with cheap products, particularly electric vehicles, is opening a new front in the West’s trade war with Beijing, which began with Washington’s import tariffs in 2018. Chinese firms put $28.2 billion into EV-related industries last year, the report said, which falls short of the $29.7 billion spent in 2022 but does not include several big-ticket projects with no known price tag, such as BYD’s Hungary plant and Gotion’s 25% stake in a Slovakian battery producer.