Chinese electric cars tend to be sold at half the price in their homeland than in Europe. If a company like China EV Marketplace announces it is launching a new door-to-door service for European customers, enabling them to purchase road-legal EVs directly from China, and handling most of the annoying stuff for you, is it worth it?

It sounds tempting, let’s say you take a fancy to a BYD Seal, starting at €40,255 today in Belgium and costing between 19 and  20,000 euros off-factory in China? Or even better, what about driving the hot-selling Xiaomi SU7 as the first in Europe, as it won’t be available officially in Europe before 2027. This one lists for €26 849 in China.

Wide range of Chinese EVs

China EV Marketplace is an e-commerce platform working from Hong Kong under the ChinaCrunch umbrella, operated by Anex Trade Limited. They focus on exporting a wide range of Chinese electric vehicles, including passenger cars, buses, commercial vehicles, micro cars, and spare parts.

They work with major Chinese automakers like SAIC, FAW, SGMW, Changan, BYD, Dongfeng, Geely, Chery, Xiaomi, and JAC, and are connected to over 80 dealerships across China, they claim. 

Exploiting the price war

How do they make their offer attractive? “There is a price war in China, so many dealers offer discounts and lower prices than MSRP (official list price). Also, our volume is significant; dealers provide wholesale prices at our marketplace. Moreover, when the car is exported, we deduct the tax back, which is our profit,” their website states. But there might be a catch.

They only sell NEVs, which China sees as “New Energy Vehicles”, meaning BEVs, PHEVs, and only a minimal amount of EREVs. China EV Marketplace claims it sold 7,000 EVs in the first six months of the year, up 66% compared to last year, driven mainly by plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) sales.

EREVs are plugin-hybrids with an extended battery and a small ICE engine that serves as a generator.  So unlike PHEVs, Europe considers EREVs as electric cars, which means there is an extra import tax to pay up to 35% in some cases, which makes them less attractive.

“All offered cars are new cars; we ceased the used car business a few years ago due to various problems with quality,” the company assures. ”

“After 12 years in the business of China car trade and export, we decided in 2022 to follow BYD’s path and focus on NEVs only in the long term for two reasons: Unlike Chinese ICE cars, Chinese EVs are highly competitive with overseas EVs in terms of software and quality, many of them being even higher quality. Also, we strive to do business that is suitable for the ecology of our planet.”

How will this benefit your wallet?

Nice, but how will this benefit your wallet? We put some AI to work to calculate for us how much we could save by buying directly from China. And the results might sober you up.

In the case of the BYD Seal Comfort, importing saves only around €800 versus buying from a Belgian dealer today. For the Xiaomi SU7, there is no official EU price yet, since Xiaomi plans a 2027 launch.

Importing it now to be one of the only able to drive it in Europe already, would land €47,500 at 20.7% EU import duty.  That is, assuming Xiaomi will prefer to cooperate with the EU to get the average 20.7% tax rate. If not, the highest rate of 35.3% would apply, making your Xiaomi SU7 cost some €52,000.

Additional drawbacks

The price advantage – 800 euros – for the BYD does not outweigh the additional drawbacks. If you find the idea of driving the ‘super’ Xiaomi SU7 as the first in Belgium still tempting, consider this…

What you’ll still need to do yourself (Belgium) is request the E705 to make the customs declaration and pay VAT & duties (online in MyMinfin). Arrange technical inspection and an individual approval appointment; pay the regional yearly taxes and registration fees.

Test if your car will be able to charge here: BYD or Xiaomi China spec is GB/T DC. Marketplace says it will include a European-style CCS adapter.

And there are several other hurdles you might need to consider. If you go this route, it’s wise to prepare for limited support, warranty, and possible resale complications, even though the car will be road-legal.

Road-legal with a catch

One-off homologation makes the car road-legal in Belgium (or another EU state) for you to drive it around, but it’s not EU type-approved.  That means, if you move to Spain, for instance, after retirement to live there, the car probably will need to be homologated again.

Some states have mutual recognition agreements, but in practice, national authorities may still require additional inspections or paperwork. So, if you want to sell it to someone outside of Belgium, the same problem might occur.

Be aware, if you go by your own, there is no official EU manufacturer warranty. Repairs and warranty claims depend on the importer, not the brand’s EU network. So there is a risk of delays and higher costs if something breaks.

China EV Marketplace promises to help with the spare parts, but you’ll have limited access to official service centers. Spare parts may need to be shipped from China, leading to longer repair times and higher costs, and EU workshops may refuse to service grey imports.

Although China EV Marketplaces assures it will adapt the car to European standards, like an English interface instead of Chinese, there still might be differences. They may miss features mandatory in EU cars (e.g., eCall, rear fog light, indicator colors, crash sensors).

Infotainment may not have full EU apps, maps, or OTA (over-the-air software) updates. Some China-only features may not work in Europe. And EU-spec cars often get different software support from the manufacturer.

If that couldn’t scare you off, here’s the breakdown in one neat two-column table so you can compare the BYD Seal Comfort import with the Xiaomi SU7 Standard import.