In the UK, an environmentally advanced country, the BEV market in the passenger car market has been expanding since 2020, thanks to the success of previous low-CO2 promotion measures, and will account for 16.6% of the total by 2022 The best-selling BEV is not the UK brand MINI but the Tesla Model Y, with the Model 3.

BYD is preparing to launch the Atto 3 compact crossover (C-SUV) in the UK, as well as in Japan, positioning it as a competitor to the Tesla Model Y. It is also negotiating dealer partnerships with local giants such as Pendragon. to capture a share of the growing BEV market.

Meanwhile, Ford is about to end production of the Fiesta and Focus, long-time bestsellers in the UK. It has previously announced plans to strategically shift its focus to commercial vans, and is negotiating the sale of its manufacturing plant.

In addition, British Volt, which has ambitious plans for a ‘made in Britain’ lithium-ion battery business for BEVs, has stalled and will be placed under insolvency law in January 2023. It was once again demonstrated that industrial development cannot be achieved without the development and production of competitive products.

Companies from IT backgrounds and emerging Chinese brands, which did not exist before, are entering the highly competitive automobile market and making great strides not as niche players but as carbon-neutral standard-bearers. A series of news stories gave the impression that a new era of competition was dawning.

The UK will ban the sale of ICE vehicles, limiting them to BEV/PHEV only by 2030 and BEV only by 2035. It is a free competitive market with no major domestic car manufacturers and global automakers. Will the UK market be a breeding ground for emerging car manufacturers such as Tesla and then BYD, who are trying to make a breakthrough in the era of the BEV shift? Will it rely on BEV imports from the rest of the world in the carbon neutral era? Or will foreign companies invest in BEV production, as Japanese manufacturers once did in building factories? How will Japanese brands compete in this context? These are pressing questions.