*According to market research firm Euromonitor International, Chinese manufacturers Haier, Gree and Midea are projected to account for a combined 32 percent of the European retail air-conditioner market by sales volume.
*Despite recent frictions in China-EU trade relations, the surging air conditioner sales indicate that the strong underlying logic of the market outweighs any narrative aiming to promote trade protectionism in the name of “security.”
*By facilitating its products going global, China has transformed emergency cooling need into long-term solutions that drive energy transition and boost climate resilience.
GUANGZHOU, July 4 (Xinhua) — For Austrian resident Denis Yurchak, the search for an air conditioner to survive this year’s scorching summer felt like embarking on an adventure.
Since late June, a relentless heatwave has grilled Europe, shattering numerous temperature records. After spending two days looking for a portable air conditioner in the country, Yurchak set his eyes on a model offered by Chinese home appliance giant Midea.
“It was sold out almost everywhere in the EU,” he posted on social media. Desperate and unable to sleep due to the heat, he even contacted a distributor in Hungary, where the unit was marked as in stock, and mentally prepared for a cross-border trip.
He then had a stroke of luck: his AI agent alerted him that a single unit remained in Linz, Austria, roughly 200 kilometers from his residence. He immediately reserved it, drove there the next morning, and finally secured the much-needed air conditioner. “I was happy like a child — this was the only Midea PortaSplit left in the whole country, and it was mine!” he wrote.
“Getting the air conditioner amidst a total heat panic and crisis turned into a real adventure, and also it’s finally cool in my apartment,” he added.
Yurchak’s experience mirrors that of many Europeans scrambling to buy cooling equipment from Chinese manufacturers. On social media, stories abound of buyers driving hundreds of kilometers only to find prices hiked by 100 euros (about 114 U.S. dollars). The demand is so intense that some have developed websites specifically to track real-time store inventories.
Data from the International Energy Agency showed that Europe is warming at twice the global average rate, but only 20 percent of European households have air conditioning. Air conditioners, once seen as nonessential in Europe, are becoming a “survival necessity.”
On Joybuy, JD.com’s European online retail brand, air-conditioner sales surged nearly 40 times during the June 19-25 heatwave compared with the first week of June. According to market research firm Euromonitor International, Chinese manufacturers Haier, Gree and Midea are projected to account for a combined 32 percent of the European retail market by sales volume.
INNOVATION PREVAILS
Last year, Europe saw a rush to buy Chinese-made air conditioners amid record-breaking heat. This summer, Chinese suppliers continue to report surging orders from Europe, driven by products that offer affordable prices, low energy consumption and compliance with local regulations.
Midea’s PortaSplit mobile split air conditioner has notched up sales of more than 200,000 units in Europe this year, doubling from a year earlier, said Xiong Xueqin, Sales Director of Midea RAC Europe Region.
The product has maintained robust sales momentum across the European market, with consumer demand far outstripping projections, she said. According to the Guangdong-based company, its total air-conditioner sales in Western European markets including Germany, France, Spain and Britain rose more than 70 percent year on year in the first half of 2026.
Europe has structural barriers holding back air conditioner penetration. Installation fees can exceed 1,000 euros, and consumers usually have to wait for weeks for construction slots during peak summer. There are also other restraints that need to be considered such as strict noise regulations, bans on exterior wall modifications for historic buildings, and widespread public concerns that the mass use of air conditioners will push up energy consumption and derail climate action targets.
In response, Midea said it spent three years developing the PortaSplit, which features an outdoor unit that fixes onto a window bracket with no drilling required. Weight of the outdoor unit has been reduced to less than 10 kilograms, allowing most adult users to install it by themselves. Targeting Europe’s high electricity prices, the product also boasts industry-leading energy-saving technologies.
“Made in China is far from simply duplicating products originally developed for the Chinese domestic market and launching them directly overseas. Instead, it means redefining product lines to align with the specific demands of local consumers,” said Xiong.
“From this targeted product, what European consumers could see is that Chinese enterprises excel not only in manufacturing, but also in innovation.”
Other Chinese manufacturers have also rolled out innovative cooling products designed for the European market.
In response to Germany’s strict nighttime noise control rules, Haier lowers the minimum operating noise of its air conditioners to 18 decibels, “which is roughly the volume of turning pages in a quiet library,” said Yu Shipeng, Director of Haier Air Conditioning Overseas Market.
At Ningbo Heallux International Trading Co., Ltd. in east China’s Zhejiang Province, workers were bustling to pack tower fans fitted with intelligent display screens, a product that has become a bestseller in Europe.
Hu Benchun, director of the company, told Xinhua that the product was tailor-designed for the European market. Between January and May, export of the fan surged roughly 60 percent from last year.
Zhou Nan, secretary-general of the household electric appliance branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, said the recent surge in cooling equipment sales in Europe underscores China’s supply chain strength.
With delivery lead times for home appliances shortened to just two to three weeks, China has been well positioned to respond to sudden demand spikes like Europe’s unexpected heatwaves, Zhou said.
BALANCE BETWEEN COOL AIR, CLIMATE GOALS
Zhang Monan, deputy director of the Institute of American and European Studies at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, shared her observations with Xinhua. Despite recent frictions in China-EU trade relations, the surging air conditioner sales indicate that the strong underlying logic of the market outweighs any narrative aiming to promote trade protectionism in the name of “security,” she said.
In response to shocks from sudden, unforeseen extreme weather events, China’s manufacturing sector has moved swiftly to tailor its supply to match demand in the EU market. “This is a robust testament to the reliability of Chinese manufacturing,” Zhang said. “Put more broadly, the most reliable anchor for China-EU trade ties lies deep in the inherent workings of the market.”
According to a joint statement issued on June 30, China and the EU had established a trade and investment consultation mechanism to enhance mutual trust and manage trade frictions. Both sides agreed that increased market access measures and initiatives can contribute to the balancing of trade relationship, it said.
Amid the rush for Chinese cooling products, some European netizens have been utterly amazed by the accessibility of cooling amenities in China. With air conditioning now available on most trains, buses and subways in Chinese cities, a short video featuring an air-conditioned dog kennel recently went viral, sparking lively discussions about China’s comparatively affordable electricity costs.
The country has built the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system, both to meet its huge demand for affordable electricity and to meet its carbon emission goals. During the January-March period, China’s renewable energy power generation reached 882.9 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for approximately 37 percent of the total power generation.
China is also the world’s largest producer of and market for new energy vehicles (NEV). Data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers last month showed NEV sales in May reached 1.496 million units, up 14.4 percent year on year. NEVs accounted for 56.9 percent of all new vehicle sales, up from 40.9 percent in 2024 and 50.8 percent in 2025.
To better address climate change, China unveiled its new Nationally Determined Contributions last September. The plan sets ambitious goals for 2035. These include reducing economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10 percent from peak levels. China also aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in total energy consumption to over 30 percent. In addition, the country plans to expand the installed capacity of wind and solar power to more than six times the 2020 levels.
In fact, the exported Chinese cooling products are embedded with distinct low-carbon features right from the design phase, as China has been continuously lifting the energy efficiency access thresholds to reduce carbon emissions, said Pan Helin, an expert with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
On one hand, China has been driving the industry’s full transition to natural refrigerants featuring ultra-high efficiency and low global warming potential, and significantly cutting direct and indirect carbon emissions. On the other hand, numerous cooling solutions are inherently coupled with the country’s distributed renewable energy systems including photovoltaic and energy storage facilities, he said.
By facilitating its products going global, China has transformed emergency cooling need into long-term solutions that drive energy transition and boost climate resilience, he noted.
“This approach not only helps users around the world spend their summers comfortably, but also ensures that every bit of cooling is delivered with the minimum environmental cost,” Pan said. ■
(Reporting by Bai Xu, Qiang Lijing, Cheng Lu, Yao Yuan, Meng Yingru, Zheng Keyi, Zhang Xuan, Lu Yun and Ren Yaoting)
