BYD sold 4.27 million NEVs in 2024, more than three of Volkswagen's car-making subsidiaries in China combined, although the German carmaker is the best-selling international one in the country.

Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of Volkswagen Group China, said the company, with an array of NEV models developed with Chinese car buyers in mind to hit the market from around 2027, will remain the largest foreign carmaker in China.

But he admitted that Volkswagen is unlikely to regain its past glory in the country. In the age of smart electric vehicles, "it is clear that the No 1 carmaker in China will be a Chinese one", he said.

The rise of Chinese NEVs to stardom, which may seem "sudden" to a lot of people, dates back to the late 2010s, when Chinese carmakers accelerated their shift to NEVs.

Back then, major established international companies thought it was too early to make NEVs, arguing that demand was weak and, more importantly, their gasoline vehicles were still raking in money in many parts of the world.

During the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese vehicles moved from being merely electric to electric and smart, with such functions as voice command, facial recognition and autonomous parking becoming the norm.

Meanwhile, the top management of large foreign car manufacturing companies had little idea of what was going on in China as international travel remained restricted.

A major turning point was April 2023, when senior executives from almost all foreign carmakers and suppliers operating in China flew in to attend Auto Shanghai, the first major car show in the year after global travel restrictions were lifted.

Volkswagen sent a 170-member delegation that included almost all its board members to Shanghai, where it established its first Chinese joint venture back in 1984.

In a conversation ahead of their arrival, Brandstaetter said he would be super busy receiving his colleagues, but he was glad they could finally come and see for themselves the developments in the world's largest vehicle market.