It may be good news for those of us pondering 2024 as the year to go electric, but not so good for competing British and European brands: Chinese auto giant BYD has signalled that it fancies a sixth of the UK's electric car (EV) market - and it's coming after rivals over here with plans to start a price war.

Punchline-Gloucester.com kicked off its news this month with a report on how BYD has parked its cars on Tesla's front garden to become the new number one in global EV sales , but more specific UK plans are now emerging in the form of an updated report from Auto Trader which tracks the progress of EV adoption as the UK moves closer to 2035 and the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, said: "Simultaneously, this regulatory pressure [for electric-only sales by 2035] is being met with the competitive pressure and the increasing likelihood that new entrant brands will import EV price deflation into Europe and the UK. The rise of new brands coming into the UK, particularly from China, will increase the pressure on new car prices as they look to tempt potential EV buyers away from established brands and grab market share."

Auto trader's report shows that three factors are tugging the handbrake on UK EV sales (which flattened in 2023): high upfront costs, concerns around charging infrastructure and doubts about the technology.

And it's most probably that first factor that Chinese makers such as BYD see as a green light for profit. Based on RRP, a new EV remains an eye-watering 36% more expensive than its petrol or diesel equivalent. The report also recognises some buyers may be dithering in the wake of mixed messaging from the government after it pushed the petrol and diesel new car sales ban back by five years. Both factors spell rich pickings for any interloper brand able to undercut the market.

BYD is in pole position for such a move. It's no coincidence that, having concluded 2023 with its three million annual sales target smashed, the Build Your Dreams badge now jostles into the global top ten for sales. Back at home, it's number one.

This week, and as no peripheral element to BYD's signaling of where it's going, the maker's parent company unveiled a new model. The Explorer No. 1 sounds like a contender for the SUV market, but at 199.9 metres long, it's a bit more than that: as the first of seven planned roll-on roll-off carriers, the Explorer is designed to carry 7,000 EVs at a time and, as the maker says, "significantly enhances BYD's international logistics capabilities amidst global shipping constraints".

As well as delivering cars, the ship offloads a message for the global industry: China is moving ahead. BYD Auto proudly boasts that it has now "mastered the core technologies of the entire industrial chain of new energy vehicles, such as batteries, electric motors, electronic controllers, and automotive-grade semiconductors," the latter being a recurrent bane for auto production.

And while so many criticise China's stance on carbon responsibility, this maker, acting on a pledge to cool the earth by 1 degree, also lays claim to being the world's first carmaker to stop the production of fossil-fueled vehicles, a process undertaken while remaining top of new energy passenger vehicle sales in China for 10 years in a row.

Auto Trader's report suggests any rivalry from China will be fierce. At the start of 2018, 46 brands were selling new cars in the UK, but by the end of 2023, the number had risen to 57 - all chasing a slice of a shrinking pie, given that the total of new cars sold here in 2023 was still lower than before the Pandemic. Significantly for those makers who are yet to transition, more than half of these new brands sell EVs only.

A key advantage Chinese makers can bring to enable lower pricing comes from their experience at working to scale: China built 24m cars in 2022, three million more than the USA and Europe combined. It is now believed that China has overtaken Japan as the world's biggest car producer.

Perhaps as good news for auto retailers in Gloucestershire, the first BYD retailing units open imminently but are situated outside the county, along the spine of UK, including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Milton Keynes. Some 100 sites, however, are planned by the end of next year.

Three models will soon take up the display space: the (already on sale) BYD ATTO 3, launched last summer, is aimed at fleet drivers as a small SUV. Priced at £36,490 and complete with vegan leather seats and air purification tech, it can also tell you what the particulate levels are both inside and outside the car.

The second model, the smaller Dolphin, offers a range of up to 265 miles and will be priced from £25490 when it hits UK shores this spring. It will be followed later this year by the maker's 'halo' product, the Seal, a 5.9-seconds rocketship which will retail at £45,640 and be a full-on red rag to Tesla. Fleet News summarises it as "well-equipped, superior quality and competent'.

Is China's increasing presence in the UK car market something to fear? Fleet News suggests it may be good news for Gloucestershire's employers and SMEs looking for electric options in the next few years: "It's expected that 10 new Chinese brands will launch in the UK by the end of the decade, offering a wider choice of vehicles to fleet managers and company car drivers," the website said.

Alongside SAIC (MG Cars), BYD, Chery Automobile, Great Wall Motors and Geely, names less familiar are forecast to all be represented in our auto retailing sector by 2030, including the dealership-less AiWays brand, BMW-challenging Nio, the superfast-charging Xpeng and Porsche/Audi rival HiPhi.

Rishi Sunak may have pushed back the deadline for an electric-only market, but these approaching brands show that change is coming fast. And as AllianZ Trade recently warned, China, from its position ahead of the curve, could inflict a "heavy blow" on the European automotive industry and the European economy.

Johan Geeroms, Director of Risk Underwriting Benelux, said: "Soon, all cars will come from China, whether they are made by a Chinese brand or they are American and European brands and made on Chinese soil." Only substantial EU investment in battery production and lithium production, the insurance giant said, would avert such change. The race is on.