China’s Electric Luxury Sedan Market Heats Up While US Focuses On Electric Pickup Trucks

The competition to be the first to market with an all-electric pickup truck comes as no surprise, but in China, luxury electric sedans are taking a front-row seat with consumers.

The county has seen a surge in demand for electrified luxury sedans over the last few months, with many automakers such as Warren Buffet’s backed BYD seeing over 40,000 new orders for its Han electric luxury sedan over the last two months, CNBC reported.

The Han will be sold in China at first and has a range of 605 kilometers (376 miles) and a price tag that ranges from $32,800 to about $40,000.

Tesla, which does not break out sales in China, sells and produces the Model 3 sedan in the region. The vehicle made up about a quarter of Tesla’s Q2 revenue, which accounted for more than 90,000 electric vehicle deliveries globally as of June 30.

Also entering the electric car market with a luxury sedan offering is Xpeng, which recently launched an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange and saw it shares rise by 25% throughout 2020, CNBC reported.

The company’s P7 model has a range of 706 kilometers (438.69 miles), which is touted as the longest battery range in an EV in China. Xpeng is ramping up to produce 100,000 P7s a year, it said.

Electric car maker Nio has also set its sights on the luxury sedan market in China, taking the wraps off the ET model at the Shanghai auto show in 2019.

But in the U.S., the EV industry looks a little different. While many automakers are developing a line of electric cars, the real focus is on the electric pickup truck market. Ford has said that its all-electric F-150 will arrive in mid-2022, while GM has plans to unveil the GMC Hummer EV in October.

Tesla has already shown off its electrified Cybertruck, and Rivian is ready to begin production of the R1T pickup truck model. Nikola, which has faced criticism over its controversial founder Trevor Milton, who recently resigned from the company, is set to ink a deal with GM to produce the Badger electric pickup truck.