09-08-2025
China's EV challenges: Tech disputes, quality issues & global impact
Agencies
Chengdu
On a bustling afternoon at Chengdu Tianfu Airport, a BYD electric vehicle spun wildly in circles, its brakes failing in self-driving mode, careening over 100 times in a parking lot before being stopped remotely. The incident, captured on video and shared widely on social media, sparked fresh alarm over the safety of China's rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) industry. For years, the Chinese Communist Party has championed its EV sector as a beacon of technological prowess and green innovation, fueled by generous subsidies and aggressive marketing. Yet, mounting reports of spontaneous fires, battery failures, and quality defects are casting a shadow over Beijing's ambitions, turning its much-touted electric revolution into a global cautionary tale of safety lapses and consumer distrust.
China's National Fire and Rescue Administration reported a 32 percent increase in new energy vehicle (NEV) fires in Q1 2024, with approximately eight EVs catching fire daily, totaling nearly 3,000 annually. Notable cases include a Leapmotor C11 igniting on January 19, 2024, and multiple BYD dealership fires in late 2023.
These incidents, often linked to lithium-ion battery issues, have heightened public concern, with Zhejiang province banning EVs from some parking garages. While EV fires occur globally (e.g., Tesla reported 232 fires since 2013), China's high incident rate may reflect its massive EV market and, in some cases, lower-quality batteries or rushed production.
China's rise in EV production has not followed the typical trajectory of slow innovation, rigorous testing, and quality assurance. Instead, it's been turbocharged by widespread unauthorized use of intellectual property. From battery chemistry to chassis design, Chinese manufacturers often operating in close coordination with the CCP have routinely extracted proprietary technology from foreign automakers through forced joint ventures, cyber espionage, and reverse engineering.
Rather than cultivating a domestic ecosystem of world-class engineering, the state-backed industry has prioritized quantity over quality. Hundreds of manufacturers entered the EV race, lured by subsidies and market access, with little incentive to ensure safety, reliability, or long-term performance. What emerged was a patchwork of substandard vehicles often built on stolen blueprints but lacking the precision and safeguards that make those designs viable.
Perhaps the most damning indicator of China's failing EV experiment came in early June 2025, when a cargo ship en route to Mexico caught fire near the Aleutian Islands. Aboard the vessel were more than 3,000 Chinese-manufactured vehicles including 65 fully electric models and hundreds of hybrids. The blaze spread uncontrollably, forcing the crew to abandon ship. While human lives were spared, the ship drifted for weeks before sinking, and all its cargo was lost.
Preliminary investigations suggested the fire originated in the section where EVs were stored, and experts quickly pointed to the volatility of lithium-ion batteries specially when poorly manufactured. Bloomberg cited logistics analysts who warned that Chinese-made EVs present serious shipping risks, particularly during bulk transport, due to their unstable battery chemistry and minimal safety compliance.
Such incidents are not isolated. In mainland China, EV fires have surged during hot and humid seasons. In early July, an EV spontaneously combusted in Zuny Gujo, spewing flames and thick smoke in under a minute.
