We are kicking off our new CHERN Working Group on energy with a series of online talks over September, October, and November 2025, each of which will focus on a different aspect of competition and/or cooperation between China and Europe in the energy transition.
We are very pleased to have Paolo Gerbaudo from Complutense University of Madrid as our first speaker, who talks about the explosive growth of the Chinese electric vehicle sector in recent years, particularly the remarkable rise of BYD to become the world’s largest EV manufacturer.
BYD to power: Chinese EVs and the rise of the techno-developmental state
Over the last few years China has stunned analysts by rapidly becoming a global leader in the production of EVs. Firms such as BYD, Xpeng and Geely have achieved impressive growth rates, both at home and overseas, and they are progressively turning into recognised global brands. How did this happen? This remarkable success story, which is posed to shape not just the future of automotive but of many connected industries, provides a useful case study to understand Chinese industrial policy in the green economy, with its peculiar combination of entrepreneurial bravado and top-down industrial policy. What we see in China’s EV sector is not laissez-faire capitalism but something closer to laboratory capitalism: a system where the state artificially creates conditions that resemble “Darwinian competition”, encouraging firms to fight for survival and efficiency, while ensuring that the overall trajectory serves national strategic goals. This model of “synthetic capitalism” deserves close attention, especially as China’s competitors, starting from the US, seem interested in mimicking some of its features.
1 October
14.00-15.300 CET
About the Speaker: Paolo Gerbaudo
Paolo Gerbaudo is Senior Researcher in Social Science in the Political Science and Administration Department at the Complutense University of Madrid, with the Talento Investigador program of the Community of Madrid. He is the author of several articles and books on the relationship between technology and politics including “The Great Recoil” (Verso, 2021). He is currently working on the transformation of the state in an era marked by competition for technological supremacy.
