The much-welcomed Chinese ‘invasion’
First of two parts
YOU live in the boondocks or so sinophobic as the Coast Guard’s warmongering madman Jay Tarriela if you haven’t noticed the revolution in the automobile landscape, here and in the world: Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), mostly made by Shenzhen-based listed firm BYD Co., Ltd., have “invaded” the Philippines.
In 2024, some 4,604 BYD EVs were sold here. In 2025, 26,122 units were sold — more than a fourfold jump in a single year, overtaking by a mile the EV American Tesla, which sold just 2,200 units.
In just two years, Chinese EVs have effectively seized a quasi monopoly in our EV space. One reason for BYD’s dominance is that its EVs sell for P300,000 to P500,000 cheaper than the Teslas. For instance, BYD Atto 3 sells at P1.6 million, significantly cheaper than the Tesla Model 3 at P2.1 million. The cheapest BYD, the Seagull, is sold at P898,000 while the cheapest Tesla is the Model 3. (EVs are run totally by batteries periodically charged through electricity at your home or at chargers in accessible places. Hybrids, on the other hand, are powered mainly by an internal combustion engine, with batteries running it at short distances, and charged by the combustion engine when it loses power.)
A portent of its continued dominance is that the epitome of big business in the Philippines, the Ayala conglomerate, through AC Mobility, has become the sole distributor of this Communist Party-nurtured EV. An indicator that the Ayalas are very serious about the EV market is that AC Mobility is run by Jaime Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, the conglomerate’s top man and Jaime Augusto’s only son, just as the former led the group’s entry into the mobile phone industry in the 1990s.
In fact, to focus on BYD, the Ayalas started to junk their 35-year-old dealership of the Japanese big-business’ Honda cars since 2003, and is now completely out of the partnership. In just two years, the Ayalas have opened 79 BYD dealerships all over the country. The Ayalas are even “creating” a market for BYDs. If you’re a client of any of the 1,226 branches of the Ayala-owned Bank of the Philippine Islands, you’re likely to have been offered a loan or at least given a sales brochure on BYD models.
Zero interest
In its promo period that lasted until December last year, it offered a zero-interest rate for a 60-month loan for the purchase of BYD models Dolphin, Atto 3, Han and Tang. Some models are being financed for just P16,000 a month. But curb your enthusiasm; the BYD cars have been selling so fast there’s now a three-month waiting period. Toyota Philippines, still the biggest car seller here, has similar loan packages with Metrobank as its financier, but on a smaller scale than BYD. Local partners or distributors of other Chinese EV manufacturers are nowhere in the Ayalas’ weight class: Changan, Chery Auto, Wuling, Geely, Hongi, Aito.
The EV’s rise is the result of several long-running forces finally converging — technological, economic, political and culture. Most analysts estimate that by 2035, all new car sales in the world will be such kinds of vehicles.
The main reason for EVs’ sudden emergence is battery technology crossed a threshold. For decades, EVs were toys or curiosities: short range, long charging times, and punishing costs. Lithium-ion batteries — driven initially by consumer electronics, not cars — became cheaper, denser and more reliable. Once battery costs fell below roughly $150 per kilowatt-hour, EVs stopped being an environmental indulgence and began to look like a viable mass-market product.
Range anxiety faded from 80 kilometers to 400–500 kilometers, enough for ordinary daily use. BYD’s Atto 3 is fully charged form a low level for about 35 minutes at a fast DC station (~50–150 kW), giving 294 km range. BYD has announced advanced 1,000 kW “megawatt” chargers that, on compatible models, can add hundreds of km of range in about 5 minutes, approaching gasoline refuel-like speeds
In fact, the BYD Company, founded in 1995 in Shenzhen by Wang Chuanfu, a chemist trained in battery technology, was a business designing and manufacturing rechargeable nickel cadmium and lithium-ion batteries for Chinese mobile phones at a time when China was becoming the world’s electronics workshop. (BYD stands for “Build Your Dream,” with its Chinese name simply being a transliteration, Biyadi. )
BYD learned early how to manufacture at scale, drive costs down, and control its supply chain — skills far more important than branding. It was only in 2003 that BYD made a bold and widely ridiculed move: it bought a struggling state-owned automaker, Qinchuan Automobile, and changed its name to BYDO Auto, and a few months later entered the Philippine market.
Cost
Cost followed technology. Electric motors are mechanically simple: no pistons, no transmissions, no exhaust systems, making them cheaper to maintain than internal-combustion cars. Electricity is usually cheaper and more price-stable than gasoline, especially in countries that import oil. For consumers, the arithmetic became compelling: higher upfront cost offset by lower fuel and maintenance expenses over time. In China, this logic was amplified by ruthless scale — factories producing batteries and EVs by the millions, driving costs down faster than in any other country.
Policy, however, was decisive. Governments pushed EVs not because markets demanded them, but because states feared three things: climate change, oil dependence and industrial decline. Emissions regulations in Europe made gasoline cars progressively more expensive to comply with. China, more importantly, treated EVs as a strategic industry, pouring subsidies into batteries, charging infrastructure and domestic champions.
EVs benefited from a shift in consumer psychology. Cars stopped being symbols of mechanical prowess and became extensions of digital life. Software, screens and connectivity matter more than engine noise. Tesla sold EVs not as green appliances but as fast, high-status tech products.
In short, EVs became popular because technology matured, costs fell, governments intervened, cities demanded cleaner air, and global power shifted. The electric car is not just a vehicle; it is the product of a new industrial and political order.
Maintenance
What makes EVs attractive to consumers is that they require less maintenance for one simple reason: they are mechanically far simpler than internal combustion cars. An internal-combustion engine (ICE) has hundreds of moving parts working at extreme temperatures. Pistons fire thousands of times a minute. Valves open and close furiously and continuously. Oil circulates constantly to prevent metal from destroying metal. Filters clog, belts wear out, spark plugs foul, injectors gum up, and exhaust systems corrode. Combustion is inherently dirty and destructive.
An electric motor, by contrast, has only a few moving parts — mainly just a rotor spinning inside a magnetic field. There are no explosions, no fuel injection, no air intake, no exhaust, no oil changes. Heat is lower and more controlled. Friction is minimal. As a result, there is far less that can wear out or go wrong on a routine basis.
This simplicity cascades through the entire vehicle. EVs do not need engine oil, oil filters, spark plugs, timing belts, fuel pumps, mufflers, catalytic converters, or emission-control systems. Each missing component is one less maintenance item, one less failure point, one less cost, and one less trip to the service center. EVs also use what’s called regenerative braking, where the electric motor slows the car and converts motion back into electricity. This means the physical brake pads and discs are used far less frequently. In real-world driving, brake components in EVs can last two to three times longer than in gasoline cars.
Simpler
Even cooling systems are simpler. While EVs do need thermal management for batteries and electronics, these systems are more stable than ICEs. There is no engine overheating from failed combustion, no blown head gasket, no warped cylinder head. Many EV issues are also resolved through diagnostics and updates rather than physical repairs.
It is China that has most taken advantage of these breakthroughs in technology and consumer demand to become the world’s largest EV maker. In 2024, it manufactured 12.4 million EVs, or 70 percent of the total 17.3 million produced worldwide. European makers are way behind, producing only 2.4 million with the US manufacturers, only 1.2 million.
China’s EV dominance is, in fact, considered its second-biggest economic miracle in the modern era, with the first being its pulling out of poverty 800 million Chinese in a single generation, from 1978 to 2020.
It is another testament to the success of the Communist Party, and its economic-management practice of not relying on free markets (as the Philippines does, aping the US and the West), but on implementing “industrial policy,” or determining a specific economic outcome and mobilizing state power and resources, as well as guiding private capital toward this end.
This is explained in part 2 of this series on Wednesday.
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The much-welcomed Chinese ‘invasion’
Source: Breaking News PH
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