Automotive Business Magazine – Q3 2026 – Digital edition - Flipbook - Page 14
OPI N I O N
EV
From price to meaning:
The next challenge
for EV brands
W
e all knew electric
vehicles (EVs) would
change the face of the
automotive market
forever. What’s been
more surprising is the
rise of challenger EV
brands – particularly
Chinese manufacturers
– and the speed at which they’ve
steamrolled across Western Europe.
Brands like BYD and XPeng are on track
to take a quarter of the British EV market
by 2030, with BYD’s UK sales up 880%
last year.
But they’re far from alone. Across the
wider ecosystem, groups like Chery
Automobiles are rapidly building a
presence in the UK.
The group is aggressively expanding
its footprint, not just with its core Chery
brand and stablemates OMODA and
JAECOO, but also with Lepas – a brand
new marque. Geely continues to scale a
multi-brand portfolio globally, from Volvo
to Polestar and beyond.
This isn’t a single-brand story, it’s a
structural shift in the category.
They’ve achieved this with an
aggressive, price-led strategy,
undercutting legacy players like Audi and
BMW while offering the same features
that once felt premium or out of reach.
But a price-led strategy can’t work
forever. The market has matured, growth
has slowed to a more sustainable pace,
prices are converging and competition
for customers is more intense than ever.
That leaves challenger EV brands in a
somewhat precarious position. Legacy
automotive players bring decades of
heritage, established trust and cultural
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q3 2026
capital. They have depth to their brand
stories and loyal customer bases.
The newer entrants don’t have that
household status, so often need to work
harder so consumers can distinguish
between them. From a pure brand
perspective, it can be difficult for the new
entrants to stand out next to the likes of
Jaguar or Tesla.
So, having made those early waves
across Europe, the next challenge to
conquer is this: moving beyond priceled narratives and finding a longer-term
source of differentiation. For that, the
new players must inject real meaning
into their brands. As more of these
challengers enter the market at pace,
the risk isn’t just competing with legacy
players – it’s competing with each other
in a sea of similarity.
What does the brand stand for?
At its core, this is about carving out a
legitimate role in people’s lives. Give
people something personally relevant to
align with and turn the act of buying into
a signal of identity.
This is a little trickier for new EV
brands, given the lack of significant
product differentiation or longstanding
cultural depth. But their reputation for
tech and innovation is an obvious place
to start building out a narrative.
The key is to showcase that in a way
that really resonates.
BYD is doing a nice job of this. Head
of paid media David Wreford-Glanville
has talked about using TikTok creator
collaborations to demonstrate the
brand’s tech in everyday contexts,
from skateboarding to cycling. As he
explains it: “We’ll show the car’s rotating
