Legacy carmakers risk losing mass market to Chinese rivals

BYD’s electric vehicle plant under construction in Szeged, southern Hungary, in August. The automaker is also eyeing new factories in France and Spain. | BLOOMBERG

Oct 14, 2026

Legacy carmakers won’t likely be able to match Chinese rivals on price and may already have missed first-mover advantage on electric and software-developed vehicles, according to a report by Mobility Global’s automotive analysts.

The paper, which the research firm released Tuesday, projects established automakers to retain the upper hand over newer, China-based peers in areas such as premium brands, safety-based engineering and fleet sales. But Chinese carmakers have an edge in mass-market vehicles from sheer scale, faster development and lower costs.

“The competition is just going to become more intense,” Calum MacRae, an executive director at Mobility Global and one of the report’s authors, said in an interview, noting global demand for passenger vehicles is sluggish. “That competitive pressure is coming within a total industry volume that’s probably not going to grow significantly.”

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