The environment surrounding global automakers has become even more challenging, with sluggish demand for BEVs after the Covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation and uncertainty due to geopolitical tensions, and intensifying sales competition due to the rise of emerging companies introducing low-cost, connected BEVs.
Even under such circumstances, many automakers are maintaining their long-term shift to BEVs and their policy to achieve net-zero life-cycle carbon emissions, centered on BEVs. In order to secure revenues based on BEV products, all companies are pursuing a policy of converting vehicles to software-defined vehicles (SDV) and aiming to increase revenues through digital services.

However, under the second term of President Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the Paris Agreement and suspended BEV preferential treatment. Even in China, which has formed the world’s largest electric vehicle market, PHEVs have continued to outpace BEV sales since early 2024 in the C/D segment, the largest market size.
Although Europe has imposed dumping tariffs on Chinese BEVs, which continue to expand imports, the market erosion of Chinese BEVs has not been halted. In Japan and the ASEAN region, where Japanese cars have a strong market base, BEV and PHEV sales are steadily expanding in markets that used to be dominated by ICE and HEV vehicles.

Although the BEV market has begun to show some variation by region and country, Tesla and emerging Chinese BEV makers are expanding their market share in China and other open markets where they can export their vehicles without tariffs and with overwhelming price competitiveness and profitability, and these leading BEV makers are gaining competitive advantage over existing OEMs in introducing automatic driving and SDVs. These leading BEV manufacturers are gaining a competitive advantage over existing OEMs in the introduction of automated driving and SDVs.
Considering the differences in energy and power source composition and automobile lifestyles in different countries and regions, it is inevitable that the path to carbon neutrality will vary from country to country and region to region.
For the time being, it is inevitable that there will be a juxtaposition of countries aiming to electrify mainly BEVs, add PHEVs, electrify mainly HEVs, and re-intensify fuel-efficient engines using low-carbon fuels.

As an opportunity to gain insight into the current state of the electric vehicle market and to prepare for the multi-pass electrification and the SDV shift that will proceed without waiting, we will summarize the trends to watch in terms of each company’s management policy, business performance, organizational structure, carbon neutrality goals, product plans, production, procurement, R&D, sales, regional strategies, and alliances.