Taiwanese newspaper China Times recently reported that the Chinese government has quietly asked Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers, including BYD and Geely, to significantly increase the use of domestically produced chips. Beijing may be quietly pushing for a chip decoupling “that tends to exclude U.S., Japanese and European parts from the Chinese market. … These changes could be Beijing’s answer to the U.S.-led sanctions and export controls.” Below are some passages from the China Times article:
“China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued an official notice this year, requiring Chinese electric vehicle companies to expand their procurement of domestic electronic components. The Ministry originally had an informal goal of asking car companies to expand their domestic chip procurement to one-fifth by 2025, but it now feels this progress is not quick enough.”
“In recent bidding for contracts with a well-known Chinese car company, a foreign supplier offered a price that was 30 percent lower than the winning bid, but it still did not get the contract.”
“Share prices of European companies that supply electric vehicle chips to China fell on March 15th.”
“Bloomberg believes that the Ministry’s new instructions are consistent with Beijing’s strategy of ‘mobilizing all forces to compete with the U.S. and other countries over who has the top position in terms of science and technology.’ … The move could lead the United States to tighten its import restrictions on Chinese-made cars.”
Source: China Times, March 16, 2024
https://www.chinatimes.com/cn/realtimenews/20240316000935-260409