China’s Africa Experiment With EVs Sparking Concern Among Local Automakers

JOHANNESBURG—China is planning to maintain its dominance in the international electric vehicle (EV) sector by investing heavily in Africa, according to industry analysts.

Chinese EV manufacturers, bolstered by substantial government subsidies, have built—or are in the process of building—several factories in African countries.

The aim, car industry experts say, is to secure new markets in the Global South, where economic growth is happening faster than anywhere else and which includes rising geopolitical powers such as India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.

China also wants to be close to the source of the critical minerals needed to produce EV batteries, they said.

Analysts also said that China’s major state-owned carmakers plan to use Africa’s low labor costs to offset expected losses from higher tariffs on Chinese-made EVs exported to North America and Europe.

The United States has a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles but has imposed a 100 percent tax on Chinese electric vehicles to protect American manufacturers.

Europe has also increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, to as high as 45 percent in some cases.

Layton Beard, an independent car industry analyst, said Chinese automakers are increasingly active across Africa.

These include Beijing-backed, state-owned SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) and Dongfeng, as well as BYD (Build Your Dreams), Geely, Chery, and GWM (Great Wall Motors), all of which benefit from China’s subsidies and policies.

Some of China’s largest manufacturers continue to dump EVs they’re unable to sell domestically in developing countries, frustrating local automakers who can’t match their low prices.

South African independent economist Dawie Roodt said this is happening “at the same time as China pledges to put poorer countries at the center of the global energy revolution.”

EV sales are expected to soar in the future, as much of the world moves away from fossil fuels.

China has pledged to move toward a coal-free future but continues to build power stations that burn coal, the fossil fuel that emits the most carbon.

Some of the biggest EV markets will be in the Global South, including rising powers in Africa, where economic growth is outstripping the rest of the world as the continent industrializes and expands manufacturing bases.

“Almost two-thirds of the world’s working age population lives in the Global South; more than 40 percent of the world’s energy and transition metals are produced here; it accounts for a third of global PPP-adjusted GDP, a quarter of trade and inward FDI, and a fifth of global military spending,” a DB brief noted.

The bank’s analysis said the Global South will be much more than an arena for superpower competition.

“It will play an important role in shaping the changing world: from the reconstruction of supply chains, the movement of people, the success of sustainability, the dominance of the dollar, the outcome of technology wars, to the allocation of resources,” it stated.

Six of the fastest 10 growing economies in 2025 are projected to be African, according to the report, a trend expected to be replicated in 2026. In 2025, some of these are South Sudan (27.2 percent), Libya (13.6 percent), and Senegal (9.3 percent).

Mike Whitfield, executive member of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM), told The Epoch Times that China is mainly focusing its EV assets primarily in the continent’s biggest and fastest-growing economies: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, and Ethiopia.

Roodt said China is also showing strong interest in Africa’s fringe economies that are expected to grow in the future, such as Libya, Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

Beard said Chinese car companies have pushed aggressively into African markets over the past three years.

“Their big attraction is price,” he told The Epoch Times. “They’re cheap yet they’re packed with features that you find in more expensive Toyotas, Fords, and Nissans.”

These features, he said, include electric windows, Bluetooth connectivity, and high fuel efficiency.

“The entry-level and mid-range brands from Japan, Europe, and America that you traditionally see in Africa are losing ground to Chinese brands,” Beard said. “The Chinese put out the message that they’re just better at cost-efficient production methods and economies of scale, and marketing, but we all know the truth behind their success.”

Beard said the African EV market currently amounts to 20,000 electric vehicles and fewer than 1,000 charging stations across the continent of 54 countries and 1.6 billion people.

“Is it really gambling when your government gives you billions of dollars to build EVs across the poorest, most politically unstable continent in the world, where there are only a few thousand EV charging stations, and little demand so far for EVs?” Beard said.

“Those are disadvantages that would put other countries off. But the Chinese EV makers can’t really fail, can they? Not because they’re so great, or brave, or visionary, but because they’re playing with daddy’s money, and once again, Africa is their playground.”

At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit in September last year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said China’s planned EV rollout in Africa is part of its commitment to renewable energy technology. He labeled this effort “modernization” and said Africa should be an integral part of it.

Like many analysts, Zakhele Mthembu, a policy officer at the Free Market Foundation in Johannesburg, sees historical parallels.

He told The Epoch Times: “If you look back at when China launched the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] 12 years ago, it had lofty ideals not very different to what we are hearing now with regard to China’s assumed champion status of the world’s green energy revolution. But what it in effect was, was an attempt to recover losses from excess capacity in China’s industrial and infrastructure sectors.”

Beard is adamant that China’s EV push into Africa is less about going green and more about overcapacity in its clean technology sectors, where it’s suffering huge financial losses.

“Many would say China has been greedy,” said Beard. “It’s gone too hard, too fast, in these sectors, and now, it’s producing too much of everything, and because of the tariffs, it’s being squeezed and it’s bleeding profits it could once count on, because it can’t sell as much product as it used to. The move into Africa is because production in China is faster than demand, and that’s forcing China to look elsewhere.”

That “elsewhere,” said Mthembu, includes Nigeria, Africa’s oil-rich economic giant, and across North Africa, where the economies of countries such as Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco are expanding and diversifying.

“These are where the most Chinese investments are happening, in terms of Chinese vehicle manufacturers on the ground selling new products and also building factories. What we see in Morocco kind of mirrors what China is looking for in African investment partners,” Mthembu said.

“It wants countries with strong service sectors, growing industrial and manufacturing sectors, and where governments are committed to renewable energy.”

Ethiopia is another African market to see heavy Chinese investment in recent years, Mthembu said.

“The government has banned imports of vehicles that have internal combustible engines,” he said. “That explains why Ethiopia currently has the highest use of electric vehicles.”

Ethiopian journalist Sarah Assefa, who’s covering trends in the local EV market for several publications, told The Epoch Times that thousands of Chinese-made EVs are now on her country’s roads.

Egypt, one of Africa’s leading car manufacturing hubs, is particularly focused on attracting Chinese automakers, Beard said.

“Geely, Chery, FAW, and MG are just some of the companies that now have production and assembly lines in Egypt,” he said.

Mthembu said that while Africa can’t afford to walk away from foreign investments, it should “guard against complacency” when dealing with the Chinese communist regime.

China doesn’t do charity, he said.

“When it builds EV plants across Africa, you can bet it is not just to help Africa. In some respects, that may be a by-product, and Africa will gain some wins, but we must see China’s investments for what they really are: investing in China’s future, not anyone else’s,” Mthembu said.

“Africa must ensure China doesn’t capture its transition to cleaner energy sources and all the things that come with it, like the EV battery and vehicle business. Much of Africa’s critical minerals are now controlled by the Chinese, and Africa must learn lessons from this, and deals signed with China must benefit Africans.”

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