Electric motors are the best thing to have ever happened to Chinese cars as brands like BYD, MG and GWM go from laggers to leaders in record time | Opinion

The thought first hit me as I was steering the MG4 51 Excite - one of Australia’s cheapest electric vehicles, and one that really should be pretty ordinary, given its bargain-basement status.

But actually, it isn’t. It’s smooth, its acceleration is ample enough, and the drive experience exudes a calm confidence. The same can be said of the GWM Ora, to be fair. And there's little doubt the incoming BYD Dolphin will deliver a similar experience.

And that just wasn't the case with Chinese-made vehicles of yesterday. Sure, they were cheap — like the MG4 and co — but unlike those EVs, they felt it and drove like it, too.

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I’m painting with broad strokes here, but the overwhelming feeling ICE cars from MG, GWM Haval and the others left you with is that they felt a little under-engineered, unrefined and like they could benefit massively from an Australian tuning program to iron out the kinks.

It was a similar story when Hyundai and Kia first arrived in Australia eons ago, too. And though it was a little before my time, I've heard the same thing about Japanese brands when they first touched down here.

The big difference, though, is that while it took the big brands from Korea and Japan ages to build trust and confidence, before finally emerging as genuine market leaders in reliability, refinement and technology, the Chinese brands have managed it in a comparative blink of an eye. And they wouldn't have been able to do it without EVs.

There was a time when new brands had a lot to figure out, and not a lot of time to do it. Engines are insanely complex, as are gearboxes, and though they were buying in the best bits, both still felt like they were at least a generation away from really competing head-to-head with the mainstream players from Japan and Korea.

The MG4 51 Excite is one of Australia’s cheapest electric vehicles.

But then electric vehicles started growing in popularity, and everything changed. Suddenly all those engineering challenges were a little less challenging, with electric motors smoothing out the bumps.

So it's possible, probable even, that the EV revolution hasn’t benefited a single country more than China's car brands. It hasn't just levelled the playing field in record time, but has actually flipped the script, with the mainstream players suddenly chasing the Chinese newcomers, rather than the other way around.

Seriously, Australia’s biggest auto players are now trying to figure out how to chase down China’s EV players, whether they admit it openly or not. And most concede they will struggle to match them on price and scale, owing to the integrated nature of the Chinese business models, and their willingness to find a new price floor with every new model.

The EV revolution hasn’t benefited a single country more than China's car brands.

There are currently only three electric vehicles under $40k in Australia - the BYD Dolphin, the MG4 Excite 51 and the GWM Ora - and there are no prizes for guessing where they come from. In fact, there are only five electric vehicles in Australia that cost less than $50k, with the MG ZS EV and the BYD Atto 3 joining the list, but it’s still a China clean sweep.

Toyota doesn't even have an electric vehicle in Australia. Mazda's entrant is niche at best, and while Hyundai and Kia both have plans to introduce more affordable models to sit below the Ioniq and EV ranges, neither are actually all that close to doing so.

And so it's advantage China. And it looks as though it will stay that way for some time yet.