The “Uncomfortable Truth” About China’s EV Industry

At the recent ORA preview event, Great Wall Motors Chairman Wei Jianjun made a brutally honest statement:

“The government can’t keep funding you forever. Only parents do that for their kids — but isn’t that basically ‘living off your parents’?”

One word — “living off your parents” — perfectly captures the current state of many EV companies.

For the past decade, China’s EV rise was powered by subsidies, capital, and hypergrowth.

But as Wei pointed out:

• Most pure EV programs are still deeply unprofitable
• Many OEMs have been pushed into unsustainable growth by capital
• Capital already made its exit — profits taken, risk left behind
• Without a commercial closed loop, the industry’s long-term health is uncertain

This is the first time major leaders are publicly confronting a question long ignored:

The real bottleneck for EVs isn’t battery technology — it’s the absence of a self-sustaining business model.

If the industry still can’t close the loop in the next 10 years, what will carry it forward?

Government support?
Investor enthusiasm?
Perpetual price wars?

We’re entering a defining moment:

– Price cuts are temporary
– A closed-loop business model is permanent
– Whoever cracks profitability + scale will own the next decade

China’s EV industry ran faster than anyone else.

Now it must answer the hardest question:

Can you survive without subsidies and hype — purely on product strength, operations, and profit?

That’s the real race.

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Over the last two years, we explored these themes deeply in the books:

📘 The BYD Way — why BYD’s vertical integration and cost discipline give it an edge in this new era

📗 The Xiaomi Formula — lessons from Lei Jun on building products and companies that can scale sustainably

If you’re interested in where China’s next-generation champions are heading, both books offer a front-row view.