If further evidence were needed that the axis of the automotive world has moved on from Detroit, Stuttgart or even the West Midlands, the Beijing Motor Show has provided compelling verification.
The biennial jamboree — Beijing alternates with Shanghai — is hosting the debut of 117 new car models, a number that the old Geneva Motor Show could only have dreamt of.
Three quarters of those launches are from Chinese carmakers. Of all the vehicles on show, 278 are what the Chinese call “new energy vehicles”, known as plug-ins in Britain, full battery electric cars or rechargeable hybrids with small petrol engines.
Cars by Chinese makers such as XPeng are cheaper and more innovative, a western investor said
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As William Li, the co-founder and chief executive of Nio, the Chinese electric carmarker, said at the opening of the Beijing show: “There’s
